Car Recall Check & Alerts

Find out when a safety recall covers your car's model and year.

com.ibrahimtxy.carrecall · Auto & Vehicles

NHTSA publishes vehicle safety recalls as open data. This app checks them for the year, make and model you pick — or that your VIN decodes to, typed, scanned from the door-jamb barcode or read from a photo — and tells you when a new campaign covers it. A Service tab tells you when the oil change, tires, filters or inspection are due.

This app is NOT affiliated with NHTSA. A recall covers a RANGE of vehicles, so treat a match as “check my VIN”, not as “my car is affected”. The recall notice says what the remedy is; the repair is arranged at a dealer, not in this app.

Get it on Google Play

What it does

A recall lookup by VIN or by model year, make and model: type the VIN, scan its barcode or read it from a photo on the phone; NHTSA's decoder gets only the first 11 characters, and the VIN is not saved
The decoded VIN lists the engine, transmission, drive, trim, assembly plant and the factory safety equipment NHTSA's decoder records for it
Tells you when a new recall campaign covers your vehicle, and when an open one is escalated to “do not drive” or “park outside”
Every alert carries the recall information that matters, and each card shows NHTSA's own remedy note and whether the fix is ready; mark the ones done on your car, filter by status, date or part, and share the list or save it as a PDF — without the VIN
Your last six checks stay on the phone with every card, readable offline and labelled with the time they were saved
NHTSA 5-star crash-test ratings and NHTSA owner complaints for the same model — counts, parts, crashes and the newest reports — on tap
Service reminders by date or mileage for oil, tires, filters, brakes and the state inspection, a damage map for dents and scratches, and notification switches for each kind of alert
A manufacturer directory from NHTSA's register: company address, vehicle types and makes

How you set it up

You create one watch — for example “2021 Ford F-150” — and close the app. At the interval you choose it checks safety recalls published for a vehicle you choose; when NHTSA publishes a recall for a vehicle you watch your phone gets a notification. It never tells you about the same thing twice.

Who it is for

Anyone driving a used car, and anyone who keeps an eye on a parent's or a teenager's.

What it does not do

It does NOT book the repair or contact a dealer; the free repair is arranged at a franchised dealer.
It does NOT sign in, never asks for vehicle registration or personal details, and never stores a VIN.
It asks for no account. No sign-up, no password.
The developer collects no personal data and adds no analytics or crash reporting. In the free version the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects IP address, app interactions, diagnostics and device IDs (see Data safety).
The free tier shows Google AdMob ads: a bottom banner, rewarded ads you start yourself and an “Ad”-labelled card inside the list; no full-screen ads between pages or on launch. Paid members see no ads and no ad request is made.

Version history

0.16.0 (2026-10-28)

Simpler ads: no full-screen ads between pages or when the app opens; only the bottom banner, the “Ad”-labelled card and rewarded ads you start yourself remain.

0.15.0 (2026-10-23)

New: scan the VIN barcode or read it from a photo; the VIN is not saved.
New: engine, transmission, drive and factory safety equipment; NHTSA owner complaints; a manufacturer directory.
New: filter, share or save the recall list as a PDF; your last 6 checks read offline.
New: a damage map and notification switches by kind of alert.

0.14.0 (2026-10-18)

When two or more maintenance reminders arrive together, tapping the grouped notification now opens the Service tab instead of the last screen you had open.

0.13.0 (2026-10-15)

Your membership is now checked with Google Play every time you open the app, so ad-free use starts or ends without opening Settings.
Membership plans that are not on sale in Google Play are no longer offered.

0.12.0 (2026-10-09)

New watches get their first check without waiting for the next round; the daily data estimate is no longer too low.
Free watches full? An optional rewarded ad adds 2 more watches for 24 hours.

0.11.0 (2026-10-06)

Fixed: for model names NHTSA's recall search does not know (e.g. Mustang Mach-E, Transit passenger vans, 2024 F-150, Tesla) the app said there was no recall; it now also lists the campaigns on NHTSA's own vehicle page.
For names listed by body style, the model line's and the vehicle page's campaigns are shown together.
With no recall on record, similar names in NHTSA's list are shown.
After a VIN decode, the model whose cab, fuel and body match is marked.

0.10.0 (2026-10-02)

New: a Service tab. Set reminders for the oil change, tire rotation, air and cabin filters, brakes or the state inspection — by date, by mileage or both — and get a notification when one is coming up and when it is due.
Type your odometer now and then; between readings the mileage is shown as an estimate. The intervals come from your owner's manual, and the reminders stay on this phone.

0.9.0 (2026-10-01)

Fixed: models NHTSA lists by body style (such as F-150 SUPER CREW) showed no recalls; those filed under the model line are now shown.
New: start from your VIN. Only its first 11 characters go to NHTSA's decoder, and the VIN is not saved.
New: NHTSA 5-star safety ratings for the model.
Each recall shows NHTSA's own remedy note; mark the ones done on your car and the open ones stay on top.

0.8.0 (2026-09-27)

Watch and check results (added, how many found, errors) now appear above the ad strip.
A late-loading ad card no longer shifts the screen (no accidental taps).
Update and rating windows no longer open on top of each other.
Updated the ads library.

0.7.0 (2026-09-24)

No new full-screen ad loads while memory is low, fixing a crash.
After the app finds something for you, Google Play's rating card may appear in the app (at most 3 times, at least 2 months apart).
Recalls are listed newest first, so the newest one no longer falls off the list.
Changing the language no longer sends you back to the first tab.
With a paid membership, the ad-consent check and ads SDK no longer start at launch.

0.6.0 (2026-09-19)

Rebuilt on the latest Android version and libraries, including a newer version of a component Google Play flagged as outdated.
Stability improvements.

Permissions

Permission	Why
`ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE`	To avoid pointless attempts while offline, and to tell mobile data from Wi-Fi.
`INTERNET`	To reach the public NHTSA recall list.
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	To tell you a recall was published for your vehicle. That is the whole app.
`READ_BASIC_PHONE_STATE`	So the ads library can tell Wi-Fi from mobile data. It grants no access to your phone number, IMEI or call log; the app does not declare it, the ads library adds it.
`RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED`	So your watches resume after the phone restarts.
`VIBRATE`	To vibrate when a notification arrives.
`WAKE_LOCK`	So the phone does not fall asleep in the middle of a check. The app does not ask for this itself; the background work library (Android Jetpack WorkManager) adds it.
`BILLING`	So you can buy a paid membership through Google Play. The app does not declare this permission itself; the Google Play Billing library adds it. Your payment details (card, address, invoice) never reach the app and are never seen or stored by it — Google Play takes the payment. All the app learns is whether your membership is active.
`AD_ID`	Ads in the free tier are served by Google AdMob, which may read the device advertising ID (AAID). The app does not declare this permission itself; the ads library adds it. Paid members make no ad request at all. You can reset or delete the ID in Settings › Google › Ads.

Source

Where the data comes from: NHTSA's open data — recalls, owner complaints and 5-star ratings at api.nhtsa.gov, and its VIN decoder and manufacturer register (vPIC) at vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov. Notifications link to https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls.

Car Recall Check & Alerts is an independent app. It is not developed, endorsed or supported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or any manufacturer.