Maruti Suzuki to recall 13,157 diesel cars

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), the country’s largest car maker, on Wednesday said it would recall 13,157 diesel cars manufactured between November 13 and December 4, 2010, to examine a possible faulty engine part.

The recall will include 4,505 units of Swift Dzire, 6,841 units of Swift and 1,811 units of Ritz. It does not include any exported car.

Maruti said it will inspect a connecting rod bolt in these cars and “if it is found defective, the company will replace the component free of cost”. The new part has already been dispatched to dealer workshops and the dealers would contact car owners.

The Swift, Swift Dzire and Ritz are among MSIL’s best-selling cars, constituting around a quarter of its sales. Maruti sells 12,000 units of Swift, 10,000 units of Dzire and 6,000 units of Ritz a month. The diesel variants make up nearly half of these cars’ sales.

MSIL in February last year had recalled 100,000 units of hatchback A-Star from domestic and overseas markets. It had recalled the cars to fix faulty fuel pump gaskets and O-ring, which could leak if the fuel tank is filled to the brim.

Earlier in February this year, Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda Motor Corporation, through its Indian subsidiary, Honda Siel Cars India, recalled 57,853 units of its mid-sized sedan City in India to replace a faulty engine part as part of a global exercise. The company recalled these cars to carry out preventive part replacement of defective lost motion springs, which could cause engines to stall and result in problems in re-starting cars. MSIL sold 1.27 million cars last financial year, 24.8 per cent more than 1.02 million units sold in 2009-10. Its shares closed 1.40 per cent down at Rs 1,294.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.