U.S. agency probes 1.7 million GM SUVs over wiper failures

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Tuesday it was investigating whether General Motors Co , should recall an additional 1.7 million sport utility vehicles due to an issue with windshield wiper failures.

GM, the largest U.S. automaker, had recalled 367,800 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in the United States in August 2016 to address the problem.

But after receiving 249 complaints since then about similar problems in vehicles from five other model years, the federal agency said it was looking into whether the recall should be expanded to include a further 1.7 million vehicles from the 2010-2016 model years in the United States.

 

No crashes or injuries relating to the issue have been reported, GM said.

The automaker said it was cooperating with the NHTSA review.

The 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs were recalled "because warranty data showed a higher-than-expected failure rate," and the company has continued to monitor field data on other model years of those vehicles, GM said.

"We will work with NHTSA on an updated review of the data for the vehicles covered by the query," GM added.

The recalls came after a GM Canada brand quality manager reported a potential safety issue relating to windshield wiper failures in Canada through GM's "Speak Up For Safety," program in late 2015, the automaker said.

GM said data showed significantly higher field incidents in parts of Canada with heavy road salt use, which prompted a June 2016 recall of 141,407 2010-2017 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in Canada. Over the following two months, a higher number of U.S. reports prompted a U.S. recall of the 2013 model vehicles, the company said.

In March, GM expanded its recall in Canada to another 15,600 vehicles from the 2010-2017 model years, Transport Canada said.

In the 2016 recalls, GM said the front-wiper module would be replaced with a module that has a water deflector and, if needed, dealers would fill the water management hole and drill a new small hole in a different location.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by G Crosse and Bernadette Baum)