By EISHI KADO/ Staff Writer
November 7, 2023 at 15:26 JST
Denso Corp.’s headquarters in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
About 5,000 vehicles in Japan, including ambulances, may be running with defective fuel pumps that could cause the engines to abruptly shut down.
The transport ministry has instructed automakers to identify those vehicles.
The Asahi Shimbun on Nov. 3 reported that about 2.68 million vehicles in Japan as well as about 10 million overseas have been recalled due to a defective fuel pump manufactured by Denso Corp.
Transport ministry officials said defects in the plastic impeller in the fuel pump led to problems in sending gas to the engine. In the worst-case scenario, a vehicle can suddenly stop because of engine failure caused by a lack of gasoline.
Japanese automakers have acknowledged repeatedly ordering recalls over the Denso part.
Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Daihatsu Motor Co. now say they used about 5,000 fuel pumps manufactured by Denso since 2017 to replace faulty ones brought in by customers complaining of engine problems.
But the three automakers do not know which vehicles may have the newly installed fuel pumps.
Honda submitted a report to the transport ministry on Oct. 13 about recalling 3,431 vehicles to replace the faulty fuel pumps. But the automaker does not know which specific vehicles had the fuel pumps replaced.
A Honda official said the company has asked sales outlets to identify the vehicles that had the fuel pumps installed and to replace those possibly faulty ones as well.
The fuel pumps were installed in Honda’s N-Box and Fit models.
Toyota replaced 1,408 Denso fuel pumps in its Noah model as well as in ambulances it manufactures.
Daihatsu installed 255 fuel pumps in its Thor and other models.
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