USA RECALL #14 - GM recalls Caddy ATS & Buick Encore models from 2013 for pretensioner seatbelt issues.

SUMMARY:

General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain model year 2013 Buick Encore vehicles manufactured August 23, 2012, to March 1, 2013, and model year 2013 Cadillac ATS vehicles manufactured April 23, 2012, to May 1, 2013. In the affected vehicles, the driver and passenger lap belt pretensioner cables may not lock in a retracted position, allowing the seat belts to extend when pulled upon.

CONSEQUENCE:

If the seat belts do not remain locked in the retracted position when under load, the seat occupant may not be adequately restrained in a crash, increasing the risk of injury.

REMEDY:

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace both front the driver's and the passenger's lap belt pretensioners, free of charge. Parts are not currently available. GM will send an interim notification in early October 2014 and will send a second notification when remedy parts are availble. Owners may contact Buick customer service at 1-800-521-7300, or Cadillac customer service at 1-800-458-8006. GM's number for this recall is 14171.

NOTES:

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

Classic Car #2 : Getting things sorted

It is just so annoying when you buy something, only to find that there are far more issues with it that you were led to believe, whether it is by the previous owner being unaware or some other reason, but the fact remains that the new owner has to spend both time, effort and some large amounts of money to rectify those issues, over and above the ones that you were aware of.

That beings me nicely to the next set of issues, if you have read my first post, you will see that i was a but unhappy with the previous seller, to which i was threatened with legal action from him, I, in turn asked for him to supply me with the details of his solicitor so that i could sent them the emails, where he admitted it was his fault the relevant part was missing, and that he would send me details to arrange collection, to which I am STILL awaiting.

Anyway, to the car, these were the items I listed below that I thought were needed to be done to get the car in good order

• Get dents sorted (Had a quote, laughed a lot, then asked for them to redo it properly)
• Get paintwork done-Bumpers and NSR Quarter and rear door
• Get dash woodwork trim replaced or repaired
• Replace bulbs for hazard light switch and air circulation switch HAZARD LIGHT SWITCH DONE
• Locate and replace passenger side rear seat belt EVL10026 (ARG Code)
• Either repair or replace wheel trims, I THINK WE WILL LEAVE THEM AS IS, CLEAN THEM UP AND LACQUER THEM
• Get radio code DONE

I now have to add to this list, 

• Locate and obtain missing screws and fixings for dashboard (it seems that who ever replaced it, did not think to put all the screws back in, and some of the wiring in the back has been bodged)
• Fix the fans for air into the car, when we removed the facia to see what bulbs were needed, the fans have since stopped working.. LOL... 
• Rattle on the exhaust, Kwik Fit says there is no hole, but i am not so sure.

Other than that, the car runs as smoothly as a new car, it is far more comfortable and equally as poo on the fuel consumption as my previous brand new car, but we love it.

We attended our first classic car event this last weekend, at Knebworth, it was a reasonably early start, well, for a Sunday it was, and with a pic-nic made, a blurb to put on the car for people to read, and a few other bits in the back, off we went.

There were not that many cars there where we arrived, it looked like a 70's and 80's Ford Event, with Capri's, Granada's, Escorts and Sierra's all over the place, but as time went on, other cars arrived, from my single 800, a couple of P6's, a couple of SD1's and a mint P5, to loads of US cars, one HB Viva, some Mondeo's that have been Max Powered to death, dome Porsches, loads of Mini's and many many more.

There was a distinct lack of BL cars, and not that many Rover's, so i suspect that there was another event, that had them all there, but we have another this weekend, locally, and that one we are looking forward too, the following weekend is Goodwood, and we will be there, but not in Simon, he will remain at home.

Classic Car #1 - Buying the Classic. click for first report

And yet MORE recalls from the General, Saab, Buick and Chevy, when will it all end ?

General Motors will recall all current generation Chevrolet Camaros because a driver’s knee can bump the key FOB and cause the key to inadvertently move out of the “run” position, with a corresponding reduction or loss of power. 

The issue, which may primarily affect drivers sitting close to the steering column, was discovered by GM during internal testing following the ignition switch recall earlier this year.

“Discovering and acting on this issue quickly is an example of the new norm for product safety at GM,” said Jeff Boyer, vice president of GM Global Safety. 

The Camaro ignition system meets all GM engineering specifications and is unrelated to the ignition system used in Chevrolet Cobalts and other small cars included in the ignition switch recall.

GM is aware of three crashes that resulted in four minor injuries that it believes may be attributed to this condition.

The company will change the Camaro key to a standard design from one in which the key is concealed in the FOB and is opened by pushing a button. The change will make the ignition key and FOB independent of each other, so that inadvertent contact with the FOB won’t move the key from the “run” position.  There are 464,712 Camaros from the 2010-2014 model years in the U.S. included in the recall. Including Canada, Mexico and exports, the total recall population is 511,528.

Separately, GM also announced two safety recalls and one non-compliance recall involving a total of 65,121 cars in the U.S. all three of which were reported to the NHTSA on Wednesday, June 11, 2014. Including Canada, Mexico and exports, the total recall population is 69,839.

In all cases, customers will receive letters from GM letting them know when they can bring their vehicles into a dealership, where the recall repairs will be performed free of charge and courtesy transportation would be provided as needed.

The recalls:

28,789 Saab 9-3 convertibles from the 2004-2011 model years for an automatic tensioning system cable in the driver’s side front seat belt retractor that could break. If the cable were to break, seat belt webbing spooled out by the driver would not retract. The convertibles and sedans were investigated at the same time, but the convertible parts were not identical to the sedan parts. GM has since learned of customer complaints to the NHTSA for the convertibles. Dealers will replace the driver’s side retractor in the recalled vehicles. In addition, GM has issued a special coverage, so that if the same repair is required to the passenger side retractor it will be covered for the life of the vehicle. GM also extended the special coverage for passenger side belt retractors on the 2004 Saab 9-3 sedan from the original 10-year coverage to the life of the vehicle, like the convertibles. GM is unaware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities due to this condition.

21,567 Chevrolet Sonic 2012 model year compacts equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission and a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine for a condition in which the transmission turbine shaft may fracture as a result of a supplier quality issue. If this were to occur in first or second gear, the vehicle could not upshift into third through sixth gears. If the turbine shift fractured while in one of the higher gears, the vehicle would coast until it was moving slow enough to downshift into first or second gear. In both instances, a malfunction indicator lamp may illuminate. If driven in this condition for a long period of time, all forward gears may become inoperable. The engine would continue to run and all power accessories would function. Dealers will replace the transmission turbine shaft. GM is unaware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities related to this condition.

14,765 model year 2014 Buick LaCrosse sedans because a wiring splice in the driver’s door may corrode and break. That may communicate incorrect information to circuits that control the door chime and allow passenger windows, rear windows and the sunroof to function when the vehicle is turned off and the driver is not in the vehicle.  In addition, a chime will not sound when the driver’s door is opened if the key is in the ignition.

Dealers will inspect the driver door window motor harness and, if necessary, replace an electrical splice. GM is unaware of any thefts, crashes, injuries or fatalities related to this condition.

Classic Car #1 - Buying the classic.

Well, after some tooing and froing and working out funds etc, we decided to get rid of our 2012 MINI Countryman and put our pennies into something a little, umm, Older, 24 years older in fact, and going back to a brand that i really loved, so we welcome a 1990 Rover 827Si, fastback.

A long and tiring journey was planned to go from Cambridge to Southern Scotland, we planned on doing the entire journey in one day, and possibly we may well have been able to, but the weather was atrocious, it was heavy rain for the majority of the journey, it only stopped about 40 miles from our destination.

However, leading up to the journey i had a number of emails, texts and calls to the owner confirming various things, just to ensure we were not wasting our time, on a very long and tiring journey, and as we were chatting an agreement was made to include a number of spares, a genuine boot liner and some gearbox oil, ready for when we do a change.

So with all this in mind, we arranged to meet our seller at 2:30, on Saturday, this was then pushed back and hour, and then another chunk of time and yet another, as the weather got worse, and traffic was built up  en route, but we did eventually arrive at 5:30 and spent a while going over the car, there were a number of issues that we were not aware of, and, to be honest we should have been told about, like large dents and damage, which was causing surface rust.

the rust item, I was told was NOT through to the body work, where is quite clearly is, and upon looking, at the car, there were other dinks and dents that we were not told of, but once we had a drive, and Andy, my partner, had checked over the cars, underneath and engine, we spend a short while alone looking at some paperwork and chatting about the car.

The seller blamed the damage on the previous owner, but as you can clearly see above here, from the pictures that HE took on delivery of the car when he purchased it, there was NO damage to the rear quarter or bumper, whereas when I took delivery there was significant damage, so it looks like the damage was not caused by his previous owner at all.

Anyway, after some chatting we decided that we would get the car, as Andy can do a number of the jobs, making it not so costly, and a deal was struck, the pennies changed hands and off we went, to fill the car with petrol, something i have not done for a long while, as my previous three cars were diesel, we had already booked a stay a Premier Inn in Carlisle, as there was no way i would be able to drive back at that late hour in the dark.

We had a nice restful evening and set off early the next day for our journey home, we had agreed to keep at about 60mph, and stop every hour and half, or 100 miles, just so I could have a stretch and the car could have a rest, but I needn't of worried, the car performed faultlessly, and for the first time in years, i have been able to drive a car without being in enormous pain, i was overjoyed at that.

The car was amazing, i was aware that the mpg was not too good on the Rover, but then it is a 2.7 litre V6 auto, i was hoping to get about 27mpg, but once i filled up on arrival at home, and then worked it out, i was thrilled to get 36mpg, but the proof of how poor it will be is the around town figures which will be interesting.

On the Sunday afternoon, we had a poke about the spares, and what a load of old crap there was in there, 75% of it was not relevant to the car, some items were un-salvageable, others we had no idea whether they worked or not, so had to go, just to be on the safe side, the replacement seat belt on the passenger side rear, had a full set of the same wrong coloured belts in the boot, so off they went too.

And there was NO boot liner, which i was not too happy about, so i messaged the seller and mentioned it, only to be greeted with "oh i forgot to put it in".

following on from the journey, i was aware that the wheels needed to be balanced as there was a wobble when the car got up to 70mph, so on Tuesday the car went into Kwik-Fit for a balance, and £13.99 later it came away and seemed to be OK. 

During the rest of the week i spent time looking through the paperwork, and what a load of rubbish there was there, nothing to really be of interest, old receipts for batteries, and other spares, but nothing that is of importance, like full MOT history, or service history, yes the service book was filled in, until it was full, but then after that, it was very patchy, but i have sorted out what was there and placed it in a book.

A number of texts and emails sent to the seller about the boot liner have been ignored, until i asked for the dimension of it so i can arrange to have it collected, he did messag me back to say he would send them the next day, I have yet to receive them, so it looks like a county court judgement against him will have to be made.

So, what needs to be done, well a few bits.

• Get dents sorted
• Get paintwork done-Bumpers and NSR Quarter and rear door
• Get dash woodwork trim replaced or repaired
• Replace bulbs for hazard light switch and air circulation switch
• Locate and replace passengerside rear seatbelt EVL10026 (ARG Code)
• Either repair or replace wheel trims
• Get radio code

I have had the car into a local repairer with a good reputation for a quote on the repairs, so hopefully that will arrive soon, the bulbs should be a simple fix, and the dash trim might be able to be repaired, we will try, locating a seatbelt is nigh on impossible, i have checked online every day to see if one appears on eBay, but with no luck yet, the wheel trims are not damaged, they have just delaminated, so maybe we can sort that out ourselves too !

So Really there is not much to do, 

 The car is in a very good order, for a Rover of that era, and one that must be saved, a check on the "how many left" website, show that there are only 9 1990 827 Si models left on the road, 11 SORN, how many of them are fastbacks, i dont know, but i know of one saloon, this rare beast deserves to be saved, for the future, the car is in awseome condition, drives like a new car, the engine is sweet, as is the gearbox, and where ever we have been people have commented on it.

I just hope that the issues with the seller will resolve it's self soon, and then i can get on with getting her back into good order, we have our first classic car show coming up at Knebworth, so we are looking forward to that, and if anyone can help me with ANY bits and pieces please let me know.

USA - Toyota Avalon Recalled for Faulty Airbags

The 2003-2004 Toyota Avalon is being recalled to fix faulty front airbags and seatbelt pretensioners. In Avalon models built from June 5, 2002 through December 20, 2004, internal shorting can cause the electronics to malfunction, leading to airbags deploying or seatbelt pretensioners activating without warning. In either case, it can cause an accident or other on-road safety hazards.

The recall affects 119,140 vehicles in the U.S.

Toyota's remedy is to install a "noise filter" between the airbag control module and the car's wiring harness, helping keep the flow of electricity current steady so that wiring shorts do not occur. Toyota has not yet set a schedule for which it will notify owners to fix their cars--free of charge.

But owners of such cars can contact Toyota at (800) 331-4331, or they can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at (888) 327-4236, referencing campaign number 14V147000.