Auto giant Honda has informed the Japanese transport ministry on April 4, 2013, that it is recalling 145,573 of its Vamos Hobio, Vamos and Z cars. The company is recalling the vehicles due to a defect in the engine parts.
The vehicles which are subject to the recall are the three models which were produced between October 1998 and August 2010. The company decided to recall the vehicles after it received 9 cases of fire, which broke out around the exhaust pipes of the vehicles between January 2009 and June 2009.
The transport ministry informed that a rubber seal had deteriorated, which resulted in the leakage of oil in some of the vehicles. The oil which leaked out was accumulated in the metal cover of the exhaust pipe, where the heat caused it to smoulder and eventually catch fire. Out of the nine reports of fire, one of them was in the Miyagi Prefecture in the month of March 2011 and the other was in the Wakayama Prefecture in the month of March 2012, where the fire had damaged the exhaust pipe as well as the wiring around it.
So far no injuries have been reported in either of the cases. Honda, after the incidencts decided to recall the vehicles.
