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Recall

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd (ETCM), together with Tan Chong Ekspres Auto Servis Centre (TCEAS), have announced an expansion of the ongoing recall campaign relating to the Takata Airbag Inflator module. The campaign, which is also undertaken by many other carmakers around the world, covers the Driver and Front Passenger Airbag Inflator module.

After investigations conducted by Nissan Motor, it has been found that there are approximately 11,971 units of Nissan vehicles in Malaysia which are affected and require replacement of the module. The affected models are listed in the chart below:

Nissan Takata recall

Current models not affected
ETCM stresses that other new Nissan models currently on sale at authorised Nissan outlets are not affected by this exercise, including the NP300 Navara which was launched in Malaysia in November 2015.

Customers of the affected vehicles will be notified by letter through TCEAS. They are advised to call the nearest TCEAS outlet for an appointment as soon as possible. Selected TCEAS outlets have extended operating hours and are open every day of the year, making it easier for customers to service their vehicles on weekends and public holidays, as well as to alleviate capacity surge during this recall campaign.

Nissan Navara NP300
Current Navara (NP300) is not affected by the recall

If you don’t get any notification
ETCM/TCEAS also understand that there may be some owners of affected vehicles who may not receive the notification letter as they may not be the original owners. Their contact details might not be with TCEAS and therefore they should contact a TCEAS outlet for clarification. Customers may also all the Nissan Customer Care Centre toll-free line at 1-800-88-3838 for assistance or visit www.nissan.com.my (click on ‘Owners’ tab followed by ‘Recall Campaign’) to find out if their Nissan vehicle is involved in this recall campaign.

Nissan Takata recall Malaysia (1)
Full list of Nissan vehicles recalled in Malaysia. These refer only to vehicles assembled or imported and distributed by ETCM.

Don’t ignore this very serious matter!
This being a very serious matter that can result in injury or death (if the replacement of the module is not carried out), action must be taken quickly. As at June 2019, TCEAS has completed 99,670 vehicles or 56% of Takata airbag inflator module replacements. All costs relating to this recall (labour and replacement parts) will be borne by the company.

Additionally, ETCM is also providing Takata Airbag Inflator Replacement for affected Nissan vehicles during Nissan Test Drive Carnival over 2 weekends of August 17/18, and August 24/25 at selected ETCM showrooms across the nation.

Click here for other news and articles about Nissan, ETCM and TCEAS at PISTON.MY

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Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd (HMSB) has announced a recall of 7,050 units of its CR-V model to replace the gear push knob button. The recall affects only the 2018 model year and is being carried out as a precautionary measure. All other current selling models are not affected.

The precautionary measure is to address the possibility of customers facing difficulty with the CR-V’s automatic transmission lever when shifting from PARK position to other gear positions.

Apologising for the inconvenience caused to customers, HMSB says the replacement of the part is free of charge and all related costs will be borne by the company.

Only the 2018 model year units are affected.

All affected customers will be informed via notification letters, which will include details of the product update. Customers who receive the letter are advised to send their vehicles to the nearest authorised Honda dealers for inspection. The replacement stock will be available in stages.

In the event that you do not receive a notification letter, you can obtain clarification by calling the Honda Toll Free number at 1-800-88-2020 or visit www.honda.com.my.

UPDATE: It appears that Volvo has revised the number to 507,000 units worldwide.

It has been learnt that Volvo Cars is issuing a safety recall for over one million of its cars worldwide manufactured between 2014 and 2019. The cars are all equipped with 4-cylinder diesel engines and include the V40, V60, V70, S80, XC60 and XC90.

According to a BVT, a news broadcaster in Sweden, the recall was confirmed by a spokesperson of the company. The problem relates to the possibility of a component or components inside the engine melting and in an extreme case, starting a fire. So far, there are said to be no accidents or injuries due to this being reported.

Volvo diesel recall
Volvo diesel engine

Normal procedures by carmakers in such cases where there are dangers to owners will be to notify owners of the recall. They would be given an explanation of why there is a recall (and the urgency to respond) and to bring their vehicle to an authorised service centre for the necessary inspection and rectification work to be done. All costs related to the recall would be borne by the manufacturer.

Volvo Cars Malaysia has not sold diesel models for some time so there would not be an action needed in this market. The last diesel model sold was the XC90 D5 in 2009 but the company found that due to uncertainty of the upgrading of the fuel, it was hard to plan for the introduction of new models which would require even cleaner diesel. Euro-5 diesel is now available, though, but there is also the impending issue of the government pressing for B10 biodiesel to be introduced soon.

UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd (UMWT), distributor of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Malaysia, has announced a Special Service Campaign (SSC) to inspect, and if required, replace the airbag sensor of certain units of the Toyota Corolla Altis, Lexus NX Lexus RX model. 

This SSC was announced following the move by Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) to start a global Special Service Campaign regarding an Airbag Sensor which was announced on 31st January. Based on information received from TMC, the number affected are 2,800 units of Toyota Corolla Altis, and around 500 units of Lexus NX and Lexus RX. These cars were manufactured from June 2015 to January 2016 and distributed by UMWT and Lexus Malaysia.

The defect relates to manufacturing issues as there are possibilities that the insulation of Integrated Circuit (IC) chips in affected Pressure sensors and G sensors could peel off over time, creating an open circuit in the IC chip.  If this were to occur, the airbag warning light will illuminate. Further, the side/curtain airbags and/or front airbags can become deactivated and will not deploy when required to. This could increase the risk of injury to the occupants in the event of a crash.

TMC is currently working on obtaining the necessary parts for the SSC and when the parts are available, UMWT will notify affected owners to request them to bring their cars to an authorised Toyota or Lexus authorized service centre to make the necessary replacements. The work should take about 30 minutes to 4 hours (depending on model) and while it can all costs involved for the replacement will be borne by UMWT.

Owners of affected cars can contact any authorised Toyota service centre or call the Toyota Freephone at 1800-8-TOYOTA (869682).  For Lexus owners, customers can contact Lexus authorised dealers nationwide or contact its Freephone; 1800 88 53987 (1-800-88-LEXUS) or visit lexus.com.my.

Toyota owners can also visit Toyota’s Special Service Campaign webpage through this link: toyota.com.my to check whether their vehicle is involved, through Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Checker. To those who have uploaded the Toyota Drive Apps, there is also a link to Toyota’s SSC page and the VIN Checker.  Information on other vital SSCs is also available on the webpage.

No car, no matter how special, is free of imperfections. Case in point is the Bugatti Chiron. Regarded as one of the most expensive and powerful cars on earth, the Chiron is considered the epitome of automotive greatness. Today however, that image has been tainted in the form of a recall.

According to an article by Bloomberg, Bugatti Automobiles SAS has informed U.S. auto regulators that it is recalling models of the car due to faulty welds on the front seat recliner bracket. And unlike regular manufacturers, the French automaker isn’t content with notifying customers of the problem via email or calls, instead, they have taken it one step further.

A team of Bugatti personnel will travel to each Chiron owner’s location to pick it up personally. The team will then haul the vehicle in an enclosed truck to one of 12 Bugatti dealers in the U.S. for inspections. There are about 12 of such vehicles in the US, but 47 in total, globally, are affected by this issue.

There’s no word yet on how Bugatti aims to deal with customers outside the US, but we assume that its method, will probably be similar in nature to that executed in the US. At $2.99 million (RM12.20 Million) a pop, owners of the Chiron shouldn’t have to expect anything other than 6 Star level of treatment.

The Chiron is the follow-up model to the mind-bending Veyron, which claimed and held the record for the fastest production car in the world for several years. It is powered by an 8.0-litre W16 quad-turbo engine that produces 1,479bhp and 1,600Nm of torque. The car was the talk of the town until it was recently upstaged by Koniegsegg’s Agera RS with its 0-400-0 km/h feat.

Source: Bloomberg

Due to certain safety concerns, BMW may be on the verge of organising a voluntary recall in the USA. According to a recent article by InsideEvs, the issue is with the BMW i3 regarding the less than acceptable data received by NHTSA based on its crash test results.

Apparently, during a crash, a ‘5th percentile female’, who isn’t wearing a seatbelt, can suffer neck injuries that are slightly above the acceptable limit. In this context, the 5th percentile female can be defined as a female driver, weighing 50kg or less and is about 5 feet tall.

This means that drivers who do not fall into this category have no cause for concern. This issue only effects a small portion of i3 drivers, but is still being treated as a serious matter. The article also states that a Stop-Sale order has been made that will effectively halt vehicle deliveries to customers until the problem has been rectified.

All BMW i3 cars since its launch in 2014, are effected by this issue, which equates to about 30,000 vehicles in total. There is no news yet on how the Bavarian automaker tends to tackle the problem but whatever it decides, this probably won’t be an easy fix.

So far, the problem seems to only affect the North American car but we shall have to wait and see if it stems from a manufacturing defect or a design flaw. If the latter is true, BMW may find themselves in a little bit of a pickle, especially if they want to continue selling these cars in markets with stringent safety laws.

The BMW i3 is a compact eco car that has been made available as a full-fledged electric vehicle or a hybrid/range extender. It’s a decent looking city car that helped change our perception on hybrid and EVs in general. We will let you know more as the i3 issue unfolds in the coming weeks.

Soource: InsideEVs

Toyota North America has announced that it is conducting a safety recall of the 2016 model year Avalon Hybrid and Camry Hybrid vehicles due to a miss assembled front drive shaft issue. Apparently 671 vehicles are affected by this recall but only up to 42 of them are potential equipped with these shoddily built drive shafts.

These front drive shafts may have been miss assembled at the manufacturing plant. And when installed in the aforementioned vehicles, could cause vibration and components in the drive shaft assembly to come apart. This could then cause a loss in propulsion and the inability of the transmission to hold the vehicle stationary when the gear is left in the Park position.

Also, the lose of propulsion at higher speeds could result in an increased risk of a crash. If the parking brake isn’t applied in the affected vehicles, they could roll away, which is also increases the risk of ithem crashing into pedestrians or other cars.

The automaker has said that its dealers will check customer vehicles based on the serial numbers of the drive shafts and replace them at no cost to the customers should they be deemed to be part of the recall. All known owners of the involved vehicles will receive a notification by first class mail starting in early August.

This incident seems to be isolated only to North America and has no bearing to Toyota vehicles sold in other markets. Despite this recall, its good to know that established automakers like Toyota, are putting the safety of their customers before the importance of their quarterly sales figures.

The Blue Oval has decided to issue a safety compliance recall for about 6,000 of the 2017 Ford Mustang cars made, for an inspection of the left interior door handle return spring. Apparently, cars affected by the recall may have had their left-hand door handle built with a disoriented return spring which could increase the potential for the return spring to become unseated.

According to the company, if the return spring does become unseated, during a side-impact crash, the impact experienced by the interior door handle may cause the door to unlatch and inturn increase the risk of injury.

As of now, there are no reports of any accidents or injuries that are related to this issue. There are about 5,470 affected vehicles in the United States, 20 in Mexico and 266 in Canada. These vehicles were built at Ford’s facility at Flat Rock Assembly Plant from January 13, 2017 to January 31, 2017.

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