Kawasaki ATV and UTV Recalls: What the CPSC Records Show

What a Kawasaki Recall Notice Means for You — and What It Leaves Open

A recall is a corrective action for a product already sold. It is a public notice that names a hazard, identifies the affected units and describes a fix, such as a repair, a replacement or a refund. For vehicles like these, the agency that posts the notice is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The recall on your vehicle comes from a federal law that lets the CPSC act when it sees a serious risk. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, the kind of risk that triggers this power, a "substantial product hazard," includes "a product defect which (because of the pattern of defect, the number of defective products distributed in commerce, the severity of the risk, or otherwise) creates a substantial risk of injury to the public." After an opportunity for a hearing, the Commission may order a manufacturer, distributor or retailer to give public notice. It may also order the company to repair the product, replace it or refund the purchase price. The same section requires a manufacturer that learns of information reasonably supporting certain conclusions about a product, including that it "creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death," to inform the Commission immediately. A narrow exception applies when the company knows the Commission has already been adequately informed.

Here is the point that matters most if you were hurt: a recall notice is not a finding that the product injured anyone, and it is not a finding that the manufacturer was negligent or is liable to anyone. A recall on record can be a piece of evidence, but questions of defect, causation and damages are answered separately, under state law and on the facts of a particular incident. The rest of this page builds on that distinction.

The CPSC publishes recall notices on cpsc.gov. Consumer incident reports appear separately on saferproducts.gov. The two kinds of record answer different questions, so it helps to know which one you are holding. The records described here come from the official CPSC recall pages linked in each entry below.

Who Stands Behind a Kawasaki Recall — and Which Vehicle Rules Apply to Yours

The CPSC pages list Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A. as the distributor of the recalled Kawasaki vehicles. Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp., U.S.A., of Lincoln, Nebraska, is listed as the manufacturer, and each page states that the vehicles were manufactured in the United States.

The 2020 harness recall is different. It was issued by Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc. (IMMI), which the CPSC page lists as the harness manufacturer and importer, with Kawasaki among the distributors. In practical terms, if a harness failed in a Kawasaki UTV, the company that made and recalled that part is not Kawasaki, and the questions about who may be responsible can reach more than one business in the chain: the maker of the part, the companies that distributed it, and the maker of the vehicle it was installed in. Looking only at the brand on the vehicle can leave part of that picture out.

The notices cover two vehicle classes, and which one you were riding affects which federal rules come into the picture. An all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is defined in 15 U.S.C. § 2089 as "any motorized, off-highway vehicle designed to travel on 3 or 4 wheels, having a seat designed to be straddled by the operator and handlebars for steering control." Prototypes kept only for research and development are excluded unless they are offered for sale. That section's federal safety standard, and the rule at 16 C.F.R. § 1420.3, apply to ATVs as defined there. Under the regulation, a new ATV made before January 1, 2025, must meet ANSI/SVIA 1-2017. A new ATV made on or after that date must meet ANSI/SVIA 1-2023, except that the owner's manual section continues to follow the 2017 version. More on that standard is on our page about the CPSC ATV safety standard.

If your injury happened on a side-by-side, the picture is different. A utility task vehicle (UTV), also called a side-by-side or a recreational off-highway vehicle, is a separate kind of machine; the CPSC's 2021 Teryx notice describes these vehicles as "four-wheel, off-highway utility vehicles" with "side-by-side seating for two to four people." The federal ATV standard is not written for them.

Each notice names particular models and model years, and none covers Kawasaki's whole product line. The practical question is whether your specific model, model year and VIN fall within a specific notice, and whether the vehicle was an ATV or a UTV.

The Kawasaki Recall Notices on Record — Is Your Vehicle Listed?

The notices are listed here newest first, each as its CPSC page states it. The details to compare against your own vehicle are the model, the model year and the hazard described.

CPSC recall 26-550, June 11, 2026. The CPSC page is titled "Kawasaki Motors USA Recalls Model Year 2026 Teryx4 H2 and Teryx5 H2 Recreational Off-Road Vehicles Due to Impact and Injury Hazards". It covers about 3,585 units with model numbers KRT1000D, KRT1000F and KRT1000G. The page states the hazard this way: "The drive converter sheave can break in certain circumstances, resulting in metal fragments being discharged within the engine compartment and surrounding area, posing impact and injury hazards." The remedy is a repair. A technician replaces the moveable clutch sheave assembly, installs a clutch cover guard and reprograms the Engine Control Unit (ECU). The page reports that Kawasaki "has received 19 reports of incidents involving drive converter sheave breakage. No injuries have been reported."

CPSC recall 24-312, July 25, 2024. The CPSC page is titled "Kawasaki USA Recalls Mule PRO 1000 Off-Highway Utility Vehicles Due to Fire Hazard". It covers about 19,100 units of the 2024 Mule PRO-FX 1000, PRO-FXR 1000 and PRO-FXT 1000. Its hazard statement reads: "When starting the engine, improper combustion can occur, posing a fire hazard." The remedy is a repair in which a technician reprograms the ECU and installs a sub-harness. The page reports three fires during engine start-up and states that no injuries have been reported.

CPSC recall 21-739, April 22, 2021. The CPSC page is titled "Kawasaki USA Recalls Recreational Off-Highway Utility Vehicles Due to Fire Hazard (Recall Alert)". It covers about 100 units of the 2021 Teryx S LE, Teryx4, Teryx4 LE, Teryx4 S LE and Teryx4 S LE Camo. Its hazard statement reads: "The fuel pump retainer plate bolts can come loose causing fuel leakage over time, posing a fire hazard." The remedy is a repair to replace those bolts. The page states that no incidents or injuries have been reported.

CPSC recall 21-738, April 22, 2021. The CPSC page is titled "Kawasaki USA Recalls All-Terrain Vehicles Due to Fire Hazard (Recall Alert)". It covers about 70 units of the 2021 Brute Force 750 4x4i EPS ATV. Its hazard and remedy match the Teryx notice above, and the page states that no incidents or injuries have been reported.

CPSC recall 20-174, September 2, 2020. The CPSC page is titled "IMMI Recalls Harnesses Made for Polaris, Can-Am, and Kawasaki UTVs Due to Injury Hazard". It covers about 162,000 IMMI SubZero 4-point and Click6 6-point harnesses. According to the page, these were sold as aftermarket accessories for models that include the Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000. Its hazard statement reads: "The harness can be missing stitching, posing an injury hazard to the occupant by failing to properly restrain them in the event of a crash." The remedy is a dealer inspection, with a free replacement for a harness found to be missing stitching. The page states that IMMI reports seven harnesses lacked stitching at one attachment point, and that no injuries or property damage have been reported. A notice for a related brand is described on our Polaris recalls page.

For each Kawasaki vehicle notice, the CPSC page states that consumers are to stop using the recalled vehicles immediately and contact a Kawasaki dealer to schedule a free repair, and that Kawasaki is contacting all known purchasers directly.

Each notice concerns one product, one hazard and one set of units. A notice may bear on an incident only if the vehicle and the harm line up with what it describes. Two further questions often come up: whether a notice was received, and whether the listed repair was ever done.

What the Named Hazards Can Mean If You Were Hurt in a Fire or Crash

The notices describe three kinds of hazard, each in the CPSC's own terms.

A fire hazard appears in the 2021 ATV notice, the 2021 Teryx notice and the 2024 Mule PRO 1000 notice. The 2021 notices tie it to fuel leaking from loose retainer plate bolts. The 2024 notice ties it to improper combustion at engine start-up.

An impact and injury hazard appears in the 2026 Teryx4 H2 and Teryx5 H2 notice. There the concern is metal fragments discharged after a drive converter sheave breaks.

A restraint hazard appears in the 2020 IMMI notice. A restraint is the harness or belt that holds an occupant in the seat, and that notice describes harnesses missing stitching that could fail to hold someone in a crash.

If you were hurt in a fire or a crash on one of these models, the hazard named in a notice can feel like an answer. As explained above, it is a starting point: it shows the risk the company and the CPSC described, not what caused a particular fire, crash or injury.

An off-road injury can also raise more than one legal theory. Product liability asks whether a product was defective in its design, its manufacture or its warnings, and whether that defect caused harm. Premises liability concerns the condition of land or a riding area and who controlled it. Operator negligence concerns how someone drove or supervised. A recall bears most directly on a product liability theory, and a rollover or crash, by itself, does not show a product defect. Comparing how the incident unfolded, such as a fire at start-up or a harness that did not hold, with the hazard each notice describes can help show where a recall fits and where other factors, like the place and the people involved, may matter more.

What Has to Be Shown After a Kawasaki ATV or UTV Injury

When we look at a product claim after an off-road injury, three questions come up. First, did the product have a defect in its design, its manufacture or its warnings? Second, did that defect cause the injury? Third, what damages followed, meaning the harms the law recognizes, which may include medical expenses, lost earnings and pain and suffering, and wrongful-death damages after a death. A recall may help with the first question. It does not answer the second or the third, and those are often where a case is won or lost.

State law governs most of these claims, and the rules are not the same everywhere. Limitation periods differ, along with when they start to run and what exceptions apply. The consequence is concrete: a claim brought after the applicable period has run can be barred, however strong the evidence of a defect may be. Comparative fault rules differ as well. If more than one person's conduct played a part, such as how the vehicle was driven alongside a possible defect, your state's comparative fault rule decides how responsibility is split, and in some states your own share can reduce or bar what you recover. Damages rules and wrongful-death rules also vary. Our state pages, such as the one on Texas ATV and UTV law, set out each state's rules from its own statutes. Our ATV accident lawyer page explains how negligence and product claims differ.

Whether a particular notice is relevant depends on details: the exact model and model year, whether the VIN falls within the notice's range, the type of injury compared with the hazard described, and the state where the incident happened. Having those details written down makes a first conversation more productive. You can request a case evaluation to talk them through with our attorney.

Records That Often Matter When an Injury Follows a Recalled Vehicle

When someone is hurt on a vehicle named in a recall, certain records usually come up. Families often keep the following:

• The CPSC recall notice itself, identified by its number and the URL of its CPSC page.
• Documents showing the vehicle's model, model year and VIN, such as the owner's manual. The CPSC pages say where model information is printed.
• Medical records from the injury and the treatment that followed.
• Photos and video of the vehicle, the damage and the scene.
• The vehicle itself, including recalled parts such as a clutch sheave, fuel pump bolts or a harness.
• Purchase or ownership records that show when and where the vehicle was bought.
• Incident reports and police reports, along with the names of witnesses.

These records are what make it possible to show later what the vehicle was, what condition it was in and what happened. Whether the recall remedy was completed, and when, can matter too. Dealer service records may show whether a repair was done before the incident, which can bear on the vehicle's condition and, in some cases, on whether the notice reached the owner.

After a fire or a serious crash, these records often end up scattered among dealers, hospitals and insurers. Having them gathered in one place usually makes it easier to see what they show and what remains uncertain.