Our Rivian R1T was Part of the 12,000-EV Recall and Here's How the Repair Went Down

• Our R1T was part of the recent 12,000-vehicle safety recall issued by Rivian Automotive.
• Rivian sent its mobile service to perform the inspection and repair.
• The inspection and repair process was painless, but we learned that Rivian has significantly changed the torque spec on the component at the heart of the recall.

This past week Rivian Automotive issued a recall for over 12,000 of its EVs. This happens to cover nearly all of its production vehicles, including Edmunds' long-term R1T. The recall relates to a loose fastener that connects the front upper control arm to the steering knuckle. This defect can cause several problems, including front suspension noise, a rougher ride and potentially a dangerous separation of the two components. Rivian first discovered this snag in mid-August but just recently submitted the official recall report.

The repair process was a breeze

We received an email from Rivian one day ahead of the formal announcement. That's when we called to schedule an appointment for a mobile technician to come out to Edmunds' headquarters and inspect our R1T. Our appointment was scheduled for a week after the phone call, and we received a courtesy call a day before to confirm the time and location. According to an email from Rivian, "the process [would] take a few minutes, simply requiring the fastener in question to be tightened to a higher torque tolerance." We are here to confirm that the process did, in fact, only take a few minutes.

The Rivian technician arrived promptly in a yellow R1T of his own. After inspecting the fastener in question, he deemed it necessary to torque it to its new safe specification. It took the technician approximately 10 minutes or less to complete the whole procedure.

Notably, that new safe specification is quite different from the original spec. We learned that Rivian engineers decided to change the torque spec of that singular retention fastener from 80 Nm (Newton-meter) to 120 Nm.

Edmunds says

Although our R1T was affected by the recall, we didn't observe any of the symptoms associated with the problem, and our experience with Rivian's mobile service was pleasant.