Recapping a week of recalls
Mazda, Ford, Honda , Nissan to takeback millions of defective cars
Honda Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp each announced major vehicle recalls on Thursday for problems including defective rear gates and dangerous air bag inflators, adding to a number of recall announcements this week from other automakers.
Mazda said it would recall 2.3 million vehicles worldwide due to potential problems with their rear gates, along with a separate issue involving diesel engines.
The Japanese automaker said it was recalling around 390,000 vehicles – including the Mazda 3, which is available as sedan and hatchback, and the CX-3 SUV crossover in Japan – to fix the damper stays on their rear gates, which may corrode and break if exposed to salt.
Mazda said it planned to recall an additional 1.8 million vehicles in overseas markets over the same issue, although it declined to give a regional breakdown. The affected vehicles were produced between December 2007 and December 2015.
The company also announced a domestic recall of around 110,000 vehicles produced between August 2014 and August 2016 including the Mazda 3 and CX-3 over a computer problem with their diesel engines.
The nation’s fifth-largest automaker sold roughly 1.5 million vehicles in the year ended March, mainly in North America.
On the same day, Honda said it was recalling about 668,000 vehicles in Japan to replace air bag inflators supplied by Takata Corp, as part of an expanded nationwide recall announced earlier this year.
Japan’s second-largest automaker said it had recalled models including its Fit subcompact hatchback model, and the Civic and Accord sedan models over passenger-side air bags. Vehicles produced between 2009 and 2011 were affected, it added.
The latest announcement takes Honda’s global tally of recalled air bags to about 51 million, around half of the roughly 100 million slated for recall worldwide over inflators which are at risk of exploding with excessive force.
Defective air bags have been linked to at least 14 deaths and 150 injuries worldwide, and are at the center of the auto industry’s biggest ever product recall.
Thursday’s recall comes after Japan’s transport ministry in May ordered automakers to recall an additional 7 million vehicles in Japan equipped with Takata air bag inflators that do not contain a drying agent, in phases by 2019, following an expanded recall by US transport authorities.
Without a drying agent, the ammonium nitrate-based propellant used in Takata inflators has a tendency to explode violently following prolonged exposure to hot, humid conditions, spraying metal shrapnel into vehicles.
Honda, once Takata’s largest customer, has said that it would stop using Takata-made inflators in its new models, and has stopped procuring replacement inflators from the embattled company.
Battered by the recalls, Takata is looking for a financial backer to help overhaul its business and carry ballooning costs as its stock price has crumbled almost 90 percent since early 2014.
Stalls and circuits
The Japanese automakers’ announcements followed on the heels of recall announcements by Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co.
Ford said on Wednesday it was recalling about 91,000 vehicles worldwide to replace faulty fuel-pump parts that could potentially cause a car to stall without warning.
Ford said it would replace fuelpump control modules in about 88,151 vehicles, including certain of its 201315 model year Ford Taurus sedans, Ford Flex crossover utility vehicles, Lincoln MKS sedans, Lincoln MKT SUVs and Ford Police Interceptor sedans.
The company also said it would recall about 2,472 Ford Transit vans to replace fuel-injection pumps in certain models manufactured in 2015 and 2016.
The carmaker said it was addition- ally recalling 23,150 Ford Escape SUVs of the 2017 model year to update power-window software.
Ford said is was not aware of any accidents or injuries associated with the issues.
Nissan said on Wednesday that it was recalling a domestic minivan model and stopped shipments of the recently launched vehicle to fix a problem with its idling stop function.
The Japanese automaker said it was recalling 9,481 Serena minivans, which went on sale on August 24, due to the risk of short circuiting during use of the idling stop function. Shipments of the minivan were halted last Friday, it added.
Nissan said that one incident of a short circuiting had been reported at one of the automaker’s dealerships, which resulted in a small fire under the minivan’s hood.
Most of the recalled vehicles were in shipment or at dealerships around the country, while around 600 had been delivered to customers, Nissan said, adding that it expected to resume shipments next week.
The Serena is Nissan’s first model to feature a suite of new semi-autonomous driving functions, including an automated stop-start function. A spokesman said that the issue with the idling stop was unrelated to that feature.