THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090368
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
General Motors Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. announced recalls Wednesday of about 114,000 cars in the United States.
GM plans to recall 44,000 of its Buick Regal and Chevrolet Lumina sedans with a potential brake defect. Nissan plans to recall 1.1 million vehicles, including 70,000 exported to the United States, to repair defective condensers and seat-belt devices.
GM said it has received five reports of brake lines wearing through because they were rubbed by the front brake pipe. The worn brake lines can lose braking fluid and eventually could cut braking power in half, GM said.
``A crash could occur without prior warning'' at minimal braking distance, The Wall Street Journal quoted from a notice GM sent to Buick dealers.
GM has received no reports of death or injury resulting from a brake defect in either of the two models. Dealers will inspect the cars to see if the brake pipe and lines have enough clearance, and do any needed repairs free, GM said. It said it expects about 5 percent of the affected vehicles to need new brake systems.
The Nissan recall was the largest in Japan, according to Takao Onoda, a Transport Ministry official. Previously, the biggest recall was 770,000 vehicles by Toyota Motor Corp. in 1970 for defective accelerator pedals.
Onoda said Nissan had reported six cases of fires from the defective equipment so far in Japan. No injuries have been reported. Nissan said it would recall 20 models produced from October 1989 to March 1994. The exported cars to be recalled for defective seat-belt devices are Infiniti J30 and G20 models produced from July 1992 to March 1994 and shipped to the United States.
A condenser is a thumb-size part in the engine compartment designed to prevent radio noise. It can short-circuit and cause fires in high temperatures and humidity, the Nissan official said.
The other problem involves a device to tighten the seat-belt that produces a gas that can cause electrical wiring to catch fire, Nissan said. The device is activated when a vehicle crashes.
KEYWORDS: RECALL by CNB