Mercedes issues immediate global recall for one million cars with faulty brakes
5 June 2022, 11:25
Mercedes-Benz has announced it will immediately recall one million older cars due to the vehicles potentially having faulty brakes.
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A total of 993,407 vehicles are being recalled worldwide, according to Germany's federal transport authority (KBA).
Approximately 70,000 of the affected cars are in Germany.
It is not known how many vehicles in the UK are affected.
The KBA said the recall is for vehicles built between 2004 and 2015 that are either of the following models:
- The SUV series ML and GL
- The R-Class luxury minivan
People who own the vehicles are being told not to drive them until Mercedes has inspected them.
The manufacturer said owners of potentially affected cars will be contacted.
The KBA said the recall was because of a potential for the brakes to malfunction.
"Corrosion on the brake booster can in the worst case lead to the connection between the brake pedal and the braking system being interrupted," the KBA said.
"As a consequence, the service brake can stop functioning."
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The car manufacturer said the decision to recall the vehicles was based on "analysis of isolated reports for certain vehicles".
"In rare cases of very severe corrosion, it might be possible for a particularly strong or hard braking manoeuvre to cause mechanical damage to the brake booster, whereby the connection between brake pedal and brake system would fail," Mercedes said in a statement to AFP.
"In such a very rare case, it would not be possible to decelerate the vehicle via the service brake.
"Thus, the risk of a crash or injury would be increased."
"The recall process will involve inspecting potentially affected vehicles and, depending on the results of the inspection, replacing the parts where necessary," Mercedes said.
"Until the inspection takes place, we ask our customers not to drive their vehicles."
