Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) announced on Thursday a recall of 57,853 units of the third generation ‘City' sedan to “carry out preventive (engine) part replacement”. The City is the flagship model of HSCI with sales averaging 5,000 units a month.

The total cost of the free fix could be around Rs 7 crore. A company official said Honda has not worked out the complete cost burden of the recall. But the official pegged the price of the spring at Rs 1,200. Multiplied by the number of cars to be recalled, this works out to Rs 6.94 crore.

The City cars covered under the announcement include those made between November 2008 and December 2009. It is part of a global recall announced by Honda Motor Co, Japan, of seven lakh units of the Fit, the Freed and the City across Japan, China, Malaysia, India and North America.

“HSCI is replacing the part in these vehicles with a new improved part. Lost motion springs, which are compressed by rocker arms in normal engine use, may bend or break over time resulting in abnormal engine noise and potentially causing engine stalling and problems in re-starting,” said a company statement.

A company official told Business Line that the probability of the component actually breaking is 0.1 per cent. “This is not a safety issue. We have only received five complaints from India, besides around 101 worldwide. We activated a micro site today where customers can enter the vehicle identification number to check if their car is covered under the recall. We are also sending letters to them,” he added.

> roudra.b@thehindu.co.in

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