Holden's diesel-powered Cruze recalled

HOLDEN has issued another recall for its Cruze small car range over a faulty drive-shaft in diesel-powered variants, that could cause the car to lose power and coast to a stop.

The local recall affects 7885 Cruze variants, with 7338 of that total number built in South Korea between February 26, 2009 and December 31, 2010, while the remaining 547 examples were built at Holden's Australian plant between October 19, 2010 and May 9th, 2011.

Holden said in a statement that the problem, which affects automatic 2.0-litre diesel variants, could cause the drive-shaft to separate under certain driving conditions.

This could occur if a tight right-hand turn is made at low speed as the vehicle is driven over a pot-hole, speed bump or other obstruction, which could then cause an overextension of the drive-shaft and possible separation.

Holden says that if the separation of the drive-shaft occurs while the vehicle is in motion, the Cruze could lose power and coast to a stop, but that all safety, steering and braking systems would continue to function.

The US-owned car-maker said in a statement that there have been no reports of accidents or injuries resulting from the problem, and that the company would contact affected customers to arrange a drive-shaft inspection.

Where necessary, drive-shaft replacement should take approximately one hour.

This latest recall for GM's global small car contender is a part of an investigation of the Chevrolet-badged Cruze at GM's Korean operation into the fault.

In September last year, Holden announced it would call in about 2100 1.8-litre manual versions of the 2013/2014 Cruze for a similar drive-shaft issue.

This recall was then expanded in April this year to a further 600 Cruzes, with part of the original batch also receiving replacement drive-shafts.

Last month Holden issued a recall for its locally built Commodore large car range, with 27,000 examples of the Aussie favourite called in to fix a issue with the windscreen wiper motor.

It follows GM's announcement last week that it would recall a further 8.5 million large-size vehicles in North America relating to an ignition switch safety fault, that has already seen it call in about 2.6 million smaller vehicles, including the Chevrolet Cobalt.