Automobile giant Hyundai Motor Co. on Saturday announced recall of approximately 205,000 wagons and cars in the US after an electronic glitch was detected in the vehicles that could stop the working of power steering.
According to the Korean company, the current recall will cover 2009-2010 Elantra Touring and 2008-2010 Elantra.
The automaker said that the mentioned vehicle models were being recalled as the electronic control unit of the electronic power steering is likely to give inconsistent steering input signals, disabling the steering power assist.
The company said that in case power steering assist is lost, the requirement of greater driver effort would also increase in order to steer the vehicle at low speeds. In such a condition, the risk of a crash is also increased.
The dealers of Hyundai will also be updating the software, reports said.
According to the company, it has been working on reviewing the issue since 2010.
In its filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Hyundai said, “Our understanding has been that the loss of power steering assist has not, in the past, been considered as a safety related defect in the United States. This understanding was based on the fact that manual steering control is maintained. More recently, however, the industry has increasingly handled similar issues through safety recalls due to the greater driver effort at low vehicle speeds. To remain consistent with that industry trend, Hyundai has decided to conduct this campaign as a safety recall.”
The company had initially believed that the level of force required to steer a vehicle without the electronic power steering -assist remained within the acceptable levels.
The cumulative claim rate for loss of the assist-related claims in February 2011 was 0.36 percent for the Elantra Touring and nearly 0.25 percent for the Elantra sedan. The cumulative claim rate for assist claims as of October 2014 has rose 1.9 percent for the Elantra Touring and 1.3 percent for the HD Elantra sedan.
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