Maruti Suzuki, India’s market leader, is recalling 100,000 A-Star models to fix a potential fuel leak. The A-Star is exported as the Suzuki Alto and Nissan Pixo to countries including Germany, France and the UK.
Maruti said that there had been no customer complaints but an internal analysis had shown that when fuel was filled beyond a certain point, there was a possibility of leakage. About half of the faulty cars have been fixed. Vehicles affected were in a batch made up to 22 August last year. The company is replacing the fuel pump gasket and O ring on affected models.
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Last year, the company exported about 100,000 A-Stars after first launching the line in India late in 2008. It sells 3,500 to 4,000 A-stars a month in India alone.
Maruti said in a statement: “At Maruti Suzuki, we constantly monitor quality of our products through feedback and internal analysis. In one such exercise in November 2009, we came across an anomaly reported in the fuel tank in some of the vehicles and by December 2009 we started contacting the customers by letter. These vehicles belonged to lot made until 22 August 2009 only.”
Maruti added that it found that when the fuel tank was brimmed, beyond the fuel auto cut off position, a possible fuel leakage from the fuel pump mounting area might occur.
The company said no problems had been reported by customers, however.
“As a proactive step, we decided to check all vehicles from the lot, including those exported overseas. We are midway through the checking activity and hope to complete it soon.”
The recall cost would be shared with the supplier, Maruti added.
