Mazda Recalls of Vehicles with Defective Denso Fuel Pumps Class Action

This pro-se class action deals with a problem detailed in previous class actions in other years, which recalls have not completely solved. The issue is defective Denso low-pressure fuel pumps, which have a component that may swell and cause stalls while the vehicle is being driven, sometimes at high speeds. The sued parties are Mazda Motor of America, Inc., Mazda Motor Corporation, Denso Corporation, and Denso International America, Inc.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all current and former owners and lessees of a class vehicle that they bought or leased in the fifty US states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, or all other US territories or possessions.

In April 2021, Denso issued a recall for defective low-pressure fuel pumps that it had made between September 2017 and October 2018.

The complaint quotes from Denso’s Part 573 Safety Recall Report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at the time of the recall: “An impeller in some low[-]pressure fuel pumps may become deformed under certain conditions which could render the fuel pump inoperable. If an impeller deforms to a point that creates sufficient interference with the fuel pump body, the fuel pump becomes inoperative.” This can cause rough engine running, no start, or a vehicle stall. Stalls normally occurred when vehicles were running at low speeds but could also occur at high speeds.

The report also said, if “an impeller is manufactured with a lower density, and contains a lower surface strength or is exposed to production solvent drying for a longer period of time, higher levels of surface cracking may occur which, when excessive fuel absorption occurs, may result in an impeller deformation.”

The recall was expanded in June 2020 and again in November 2020.

In June 2020, Mazda announced vehicle recalls in China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mexico, but did not recall similar vehicles in the US until November 2021.

Even now, the complaint alleges that Mazda’s recalls do not cover all vehicles made with the defective fuel pumps: “While Mazda’s Recall includes only certain model year 2018-2020 vehicles that suffer from the Fuel Pump Defect, a recall by another manufacturer … covers model year 2013-2019 vehicles… Moreover, Mazda customers have been submitting Fuel Pump Defect complaints to NHTSA since 2013.”

In fact, the complaint alleges that “Mazda’s Recall repairs are inadequate on multiple levels.” It alleges that Mazda does not replace the entire fuel pump module but tells its technicians “to replace only the fuel pump motor, which is part of the module. This is an extremely delicate and difficult procedure with a high risk of damaging the entire fuel pump module, which can result in gas leaking out of the fuel tank, creating hazardous conditions and exacerbating the Fuel Pump Defect instead of correcting it.”

The complaint alleges that “at least hundreds of thousands of Mazda’s customers in the United States are driving vehicles that pose a serious safety risk.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Automobile
Tags: Defective Automobile, Fuel Pumps