Mitsubishi, Volvo recalls

ANOTHER dimension has been added to Mitsubishi's recurring vehicle recall nightmare.

In addition to the replacement of a lower control arm on about 2000 pre-1995 Galants, 247 of the same cars built after mid-1994 have a suspect petrol tank baffle and are also being recalled. Failure of the baffle can lead to a petrol smell in the car.

The 247 are part of the original 2000 and no extra cars are involved.

Both problems can be addressed in a single visit to a dealer's workshop. So far, no specific failures have been recorded locally but the cars are being recalled in line with instructions from Japan.

In addition, Volvo has recalled 116,000 1999-2000 S80s worldwide, to replace faulty ball-joints in the front suspension, which may wear prematurely.

The recall affects 680 cars in Australia and the work will take only a couple of hours.