Mitsubishi recalls 144,000 cars in Australia

MITSUBISH has issued one of the largest recalls in Australia following the discovery of a fault affecting 114,862 vehicles that could cause the headlights and indicators to stop working.

The Japanese car-maker has confirmed that it applies to 91,665 examples of the Lancer small car, Colt light hatch, Grandis people-mover and 380 large sedan, plus 23,197 Pajero and Outlander SUVs.

The models affected include the RG Colt built between 2004-2008, the DB 380 from 2005-2008, the BA Grandis from 2004-2008, CH Lancer and CY Lancer Evo from 2005-2007, ZF Outlander from 2005-2007 and NP Pajero from 2005-2006.

A notice on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recalls website says that due to the inappropriate structure of the base for the lighting switch platform, “a crack may develop in the soldering in the printed circuit board between the base and the platform caused by the repeated heating cycle of expansion and contraction.” “In the worst case scenario, the cracked portion could cause a temporary continuity failure resulting in a situation where the head lamps and/or turn signal lamps turn off, do not turn on or stay on,” the ACCC recalls website stated.

“This may pose an accident hazard to the driver and other road users.”

Mitsubishi Motors Australia said today the recall was being conducted in the interest of customer safety.

“Mitsubishi Motors Australia has initiated a voluntary recall of just over 114,000 vehicles in the interest of safety and customer satisfaction. The potential issue is related to the turn signal/headlight switch, the solder in the printed circuit board may develop a crack, resulting in intermittent turn signal or headlight failure.” “Based on a small number of cases in the local market, owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by mail with a request to contact their nearest authorised Mitsubishi dealer to make an appointment.

“Their vehicle will then be inspected and repaired if required. The repair will take approximately 0.3 to 0.5 hours to complete.”

Mitsubishi recalled the current-generation Outlander SUV early last year following the discovery of a number of on-board computer-related faults, while the Colt was recalled in late 2011 due to an issue with the suspension.

This year has seen record numbers of vehicles recalled by car-makers, with Toyota recalling 6.5 million cars globally and 300,000 locally in April due to an fault relating to Takata airbags.

In June more car-makers were caught up in a similar airbag fault with Honda having to recall 33,434 cars and Nissan recalling 25,941 vehicles.