Mazda Motor Corp has a creepy problem — a common spider species seems to have developed a hankering for making nests and weaving webs inside the engines of its sporty Mazda 6 sedan.
The Japanese automaker said on Thursday it would be recalling 65,000 vehicles in the US, Canada and Mexico to outfit them with special screens to keep the spiders out.
“There doesn’t seem to be any particular reason why he’s chosen the Mazda 6,” spokesman Jeremy Barnes said.
Photo: EPA
“It apparently likes to go zoom-zoom from the best we can tell,” he said with a laugh, in reference to Mazda’s advertising tag-line.
While the spider problem sounds silly, Barnes said it could be dangerous. The webs and nests can block air flow in the fuel tank’s vent and this could cause the tank to leak or even catch fire. So far there have been no accidents or fires, but Madza isn’t taking any chances.
Since the problem wasn’t restricted to a particular geographic region, Mazda thought it best to recall all its affected vehicles in areas where the yellow sac spider lives, Barnes said.
The problem was first discovered in October 2009 when a dealer found a spider web in a canister vent line when a customer brought their Mazda 6 in for repairs after it started leaking fuel.
The dealer investigated further and it was determined that the web blocked up the vent and caused “excessive vacuum” in the fuel tank, which “eventually resulted in a crack in the fuel tank through repetitive negative pressure stress,” Mazda said in filings with safety regulators.
Nineteen other spider nests have been discovered in Mazda 6 vehicles across the US, but only in the four-cylinder versions, so maybe it isn’t that sporty after all. Dealers will inspect all the vehicles for cracks, clean out the vents, install a “spring to prohibit spider intrusion” and reprogram the powertrain control module to avoid a build up of pressure in the tank.
In the latest defect recall to hit Japanese automakers, Honda Motor Co Ltd said on Thursday it was recalling almost 37,000 Civic Hybrids in the US.
Honda said a faulty converter in the hybrid control system could lead to the engine stalling and malfunction of the headlights.
No injuries or accidents have been reported in relation to the problem, which affects 2006 and 2007 models.
Chrysler Group is also recall nearly 250,000 vehicles in the US to fix an ignition key unit defect that can cause the engine to stall or shut off while driving, safety regulators reported on Thursday.
The defect affects last year’s models of the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, and Dodge Journey sport utility vehicles.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US