Subaru and Toyota Recall Over 400,000 Vehicles for Faulty Valve Springs

The failed components are causing cars to stall suddenly with additional damage sometimes following.

byMarco Margaritoff|
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The Subaru Corporation is officially recalling over 400,000 vehicles across the world to repair faulty engine parts responsible for stalling while driving.

The models comprising this considerable recall include Subaru’s Forester sport-utility vehicle, Impreza, and BRZ sports car. The Toyota 86, which was sold as the Scion FR-S in the United States during the recall period in question, is also affected here. Every known model at risk of stalling due to faulty engine parts was manufactured in either 2012 or 2013. 

Subaru is taking a substantial hit from this development, having cut operating profit expectations for the April-September period (the first half of Japan’s financial year) last week by $434 million (49 billion yen). The company now estimates an operating profit of $540 million (61 billion yen) for this period, which is largely a result of the recall and its subsequent costs. Subaru said it would elaborate on the recall’s financial impact in more detail when it announces Q2 earnings on Monday. 

As for the faulty components themselves, Subaru pointed at valve springs that could potentially cause the car to stall and inflict further damage. Since these same springs keep engine valves shut during fuel combustion, it’s vital for their functional integrity to be intact. Their failure, in other words, could lead to serious accidents on the road. The company added that fixing the issue could take over 12 hours.

In terms of numbers, Toyota said its vehicles comprise around 80,000 of the total recall, with around 25,000 of those being Scion FR-S models sold in the U.S. between March 2012 and July 2013. Everyone involved should expect to be notified via mail no sooner than December. For Subaru, the recall period ranges from vehicles made between January 2012 and September 2013, with 101,000 of those sold in Japan. 

For Toyota, it was a mere month ago that the company announced a recall of Priuses for stalling issues, while Subaru admitted to falsifying data related to safety standards and procedures. While the latter sold around 270,000 units of the three affected models in the U.S. during the period in question, it is yet to be known just how many are going to be recalled stateside. In other words, if you happen to fall any category of vehicle owner mentioned above, you might want to keep an eye on the mail. 

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