List of manufacturer recalls for April 2016

The manufacturing of an automobile requires years of research and huge investment just to ensure the fine quality of the product that gets delivered to the final customer. But things are not always picture-perfect if we take the degree of complexity into consideration. Apply Murphy’s law — which states “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” — to such complex machinery, and there’s bound to be trouble. If a potential safety issue is detected, carmakers take it quite seriously and recall every example that contains the fault and rectify it, one by one. Here are the recalls that occurred in April 2016, largely reported in the United States. Remember to check with your local dealer to see if your car is affected.

The giant from Bavaria, BMW, has started recalling its cars to fix a faulty airbag control module which might reset in a random fashion due to an electrical short connection. This can leave the airbags unable to deploy if the car gets into an accident while the resetting is going on. 6110 units of their flagship sedan, the 2016 7-series which were manufactured between July 1,2015 to December 11, 2015, are subjected to this recall.

Ford Motor Company announced a mass recall of 201,900 vehicles which includes 2011-2012 F-150s, 2012 Mustang, 2012 Expedition and the 2012 Lincoln Navigator. The problem exists on the transmission lead frame where the output speed sensor initiates an involuntary down shift right down to the first gear. The immense increase in torque will lock up the rear wheels causing them to skid.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have recalled a whopping 1.1 million vehicles worldwide which were equipped with 8-speed transmissions that rolled away due to a faulty rocker-switch type shifter which bounces back into the middle position after it’s moved. The vehicles effected include 2012-2014 Dodge Chargers, Chrysler 300s and 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees. FCA have also recalled 14,678 2015,2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Durangos to clear out a problem with the left front brake caliper which might lead to the cracking of the same due to the usage of a wrong type of iron.

A problem with the O-ring of the ABS actuator has forced Nissan to call back a few of its customers too. The 12616 units of 2012-2016 Murano which were manufactured between 17 December 2015 and 11 February 2016 will be affected by this recall. A few examples of 2016 Nissan Maxima produced between November 25, 2015 to February 12, 2016 will also be called back. The fault with the O-ring may drop the brake fluid pressure below optimum which will increase the braking distance. The recall will begin in June and the dealers will inspect the ABS actuator and replace it if necessary.

Nissan said it will recall 3.53 million vehicles, mostly in the United States, citing passenger-side airbags that may not work properly because vehicle sensors may malfunction. The new recall includes vehicles from the 2013-2017 model years, including some Nissan Altima, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Sentra, Rogue and NV200 as well as Infiniti JX35/QX60, and Q50. It also includes the 2015-2016 Chevrolet City Express, built for General Motors by Nissan. The defective sensors of the passenger side airbag find it difficult to differentiate between adults and children. Thus it may consider a fully grown adult for a child or even worse, an empty seat, and deploy the airbag accordingly.

The big pickup trucks from GM, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500, were also recalled in the month of April after the detection of a problem with the steel cable that fasten the seatbelts to the frame of the truck. This cable is prone to fatigue and may separate due to repeated bending. 1,037,982 of these vehicles are being recalled for the rectification of this problem.

Toyota has subjected 4170 of its 2016 RAV4, 90 of the 2016 Lexus RX350 and 12,400 units of 2016 ES350 for attending to a glitch in a component in the brake actuator assembly. This might lead to improper functioning of safety systems like ABS, traction control, stability control etc. Toyota has also extended the recall to its highly popular Camry and Avalon models for mending an incorrectly calibrated Occupant Classification System in the front passenger seat. As this is the system which activates the airbag when it detects a passenger on the seat, the problematic system might lead to a failed airbag deployment in the event of an accident.

Honda is also calling a few 2004-2007 Accords back to replace front passenger airbag models that doesn’t meet US federal safety regulations. 

Subaru is retrieving 18,200 examples of the 2015-2016 WRX and Forester 2.0 XT for repairing the turbo intake duct that is prone to develop a crack due to the usage of incorrect material.

The electric car manufacturer Tesla is also calling back 2700 of its Model X crossovers as they found out that there was a problem with the third-row seats. In the tests they conducted prior to shipping these cars to Europe, they observed that the rear seats fold forwards in the event of an accident. Tesla haven’t received any complaints yet regarding this problem, but they are strongly advising every customer not to use the back seat till they get it repaired for you.