Mazda Recalls Over 200,000 Cars Due to Power Steering Failure

At the beginning of last moth, we reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 48,764 BMW and 293,787 Mazda vehicles due to a power steering issue, after it had received a number of complaints related to this.

Now Mazda is recalling over 200,000 Mazda3 and Mazda5 vehicles belonging to the 2007-2009 model years due to the loss of steering power assistance, as automotive news reports.

The NHTSA had received 33 complaints of power steering assist failure for Mazda3 cars. The drivers claimed that the loss of steering control caused their vehicles to enter dangerous situations, with three of them reporting crashes related to this.

A Mazda executive told the aforementioned source that the company has notified the NHTSA of the recall last week.

The executive explained that the affected vehicles’ power steering assistance can fail due to the fact that the sensors located in the steering pump become contaminated with rust coming from pipes that link the power steering pump to the steering rack. As a result, the power steering pump enters the “safe mode” and shuts itself off. The rust was formed in some of the pipes during the manufacturing process when these were coated and cleaned.

However, Mazda said that the vehicles that deal with a power steering failure will require an increased amount of effort from the driver, but this does not mean that the cars become undrivable.

The Mazda dealers will replace the power steering pump and pipes that connect this to the steering rack on the affected vehicles, with the operation being performed free of charge.