Hyundai brake switch call-in affects 277,000 cars

HYUNDAI Motor Co Australia (HMCA) has mounted a service campaign to replace the brake light switch for eight of its models, asking owners of some 277,000 vehicles to return to dealers for corrective action.

No official safety recall has been issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), but owners of certain Getz, i30, Elantra, Santa Fe, Tucson, ix35, iLoad and iMax models are being notified of the potential problem, which in a few cases has been found to delay full illumination of the brake lights by up to two seconds.

According to Hyundai, the failure of the brake light switch can also result in the illumination of a dash warning light, or could activate the vehicle’s ‘failsafe’ mode, which in turn could prevent it from starting or moving out of park (on automatics) or cause the cruise control to malfunction.

HMCA public relations general manager Bill Thomas told GoAuto that the federal department of infrastructure and transport had investigated the issue and found no cause to mount a safety recall campaign through the ACCC.

Mr Thomas stressed that the braking performance of the vehicle has never been in doubt and that the ABS braking system has remained fully functional.

However, the issue, which covers a large portion of the South Korean brand’s model range and extends to about 277,000 vehicles – not 227,000, as reported by some media outlets – is significant enough for the company to mount a national ‘service’ campaign.

Up until now, dealers had only attended to individual cases when customers approached them with a problem.

The campaign will now see the relevant part replaced “in order to eliminate any possibility of malfunction as quickly and effectively as possible – and with the least possible inconvenience to customers”.

An updated list of specific build dates for affected vehicles were still to be officially announced at the time of publication, but should be available from Hyundai dealers.