Spider Causes Mazda6 Recall
03-03-11, 10:29 AM
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Spider Causes Mazda6 Recall
Mazda has a creepy crawly culprit in its new safety recall -- a spider.
After discovering spider webs in the vents, the Japanese automaker is recalling more than 50,000 Mazda6 cars from the 2009-2010 model years in the United States and an additional 15,000 vehicles in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The company said Thursday a spider could weave a web in a vent connected to the fuel tank system and clog up the tank's ventilation. Pressure on the fuel tank could lead to a crack, causing fuel leakage and the risk of a fire.
Mazda said it was unaware of any fires, injuries or crashes in the vehicles.
Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes said dealers had identified 20 cases in which spider webs were found in the vents. The webs were linked to yellow sac spiders, Barnes said, but it was unclear why they were crawling into the Mazda6 rather than other vehicles.
Adding to the mystery, Barnes said the arachnoid attraction to the sporty cars -- which the company has marketed with its "zoom-zoom" tagline -- had no specific connection to a particular region of North America.
"Perhaps yellow sac spiders like to go zoom-zoom?" Barnes quipped.
The recall involves vehicles with V4 engines built from April 2008 to February 2010.
Owners will be notified by mid-March and told to take their vehicles to dealers for inspection and repairs. Customers can call Mazda at (800) 222-5500.
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03-03-11, 12:13 PM
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I remember driving my gfs car and was cruising when I caught a glimpse of a dime-sized spider crawling on the headliner right above me. I was about a minute away from my destination and needed to bust a left at the approaching intersection. I prayed that it didn't start lowering itself via spidey line, but it did. Nearing the stop at the red light, I had no choice but to smack it with my bare hands when it landed on my leg... Talk about distracted driving.
03-08-11, 04:40 PM
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Peta
Last week's oddball recall of some of the company's sedans has the non-animal-eaters at PETA getting grabby with your Mazda.
The recall, which affects some 52,000 Mazda6 sedans worldwide, involves the 4-door and the Yellow Sac spider, which apparently loves the smell of gas so much that it's attracted to the Mazda, which has dual gas-vents lines that emit enough vapor to draw in the spider. The spider can build webs inside the line, leading to fuel-tank leaks and cracks.
Huffing arachnids are bad enough, but now PETA's trying to put them in rehab and to score some free cars for its own agenda. The group said today it would gladly accept freely donated Mazdas affected by the recall--and would try to free the creatures from the emissions system and release them in the woods near its headquarters in Virginia.
If you've seen A&E's Intervention, you know the fail rate's pretty, um....high for problem spiders like these, but PETA thinks it has the right approach.
"It's a win-win situation for compassionate people who suffer from arachnophobia, one of the most common phobias," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
03-09-11, 07:05 AM
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Accords
The web of mystery continues — Mazda is no longer the only automaker with a spider problem.
The same yellow sac spider that sparked a recall of 65,000 Mazda6 sedans also likes to nest in Honda Accords.
Honda Motor Co. hasn't announced a recall but has notified its dealers to be on the lookout for the spider. The company has issued what is known as a technical service bulletin telling Honda mechanics how to fix the problem.
"It was the same scenario and the same breed of spider. It would get in there and create a blockage that would create problems," said Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman.
Honda doesn't have a record of how many times it has spotted the problem but said it was big enough to put out the alert. Otherwise, mechanics could be spending many hours searching for the source of the problem, and that would run up the bill for Honda if the cars were still under warranty, or for the owners after the warranty expired.
Martin said Honda believes the spider, whose Latin name is Cheiracanthium inclusum, is crawling into the system through the fuel tank door on the outside of the car. The doors fit snugly but are not airtight, to avoid trapping water and debris, he said.
From there the bug probably is crawling down the vent hole, where there is a hidden, snug space, he said.
"It seems pretty random, and we don't have data on regions," Martin said.
Among Hondas, the spider problem shows up the most often in 2008 and 2009 model-year Accords. Mazda Motor Corp. is finding the spiders in Mazda6 cars from the 2009 and 2010 model years.
Mazda said spiders nesting in tiny rubber hoses linked to fuel tank systems could cause pressurization and ventilation problems in certain cars. That could lead to fuel leaks or even fires, though there are no reports of such incidents.
The yellow sac spider is indigenous to all but the most northern states in the U.S. and accounts for a large percentage of spider bites in America. For most people, the bites lead to about the same irritation as a mosquito bite, although in some cases they cause a more severe reaction.
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