Oil leaks: General Motors recalls 1.4 million cars recalled

General Motors issued its third recall in seven years for cars that can leak oil and catch fire, in a few instances damaging garages and homes. The first two recalls created to address this problem didn’t work, and 1,300 cars caught fire. A GM spokesman said about 85 percent of the fires occurred while the vehicles were shut off. All have 3.8-liter V6 engines.

The company said that the oil leaked onto a hot manifold in the engine after “hard braking”.

United States safety regulators became aware of the fires in early 2007 and GM has since reported 19 minor related injuries.

Other vehicles included in the recall are the 1997-2004 Pontiac Grand Prix, 1998-’99 Chevrolet Lumina, 1998-2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, 1998-’99 Oldsmobile Intrigue and 1997-2004 Buick Regal. In 2008, a GM spokeswoman said the cars were responsible for 267 fires, including at least 17 that burned structures. NHTSA said it reviewed reports of 138 fires – and said they typically were discovered five to 15 minutes after a vehicle was parked – and GM urged owners not to park their vehicles inside their garages until the recall repairs had been made. That probe found three injuries.

If you own one of the 1.2 million older V-6 GM cars that the automaker recalled Tuesday, GM says to keep the auto parked outside. Dealers replaced the spark plug wire channels on all the vehicles.

About 1.3 million of the recalled cars are in the US, while the rest are in Canada, Mexico and exports, CNBC noted. Company tests showed that if oil caught fire, it would be a small “pilot flame” that would extinguish itself, Adler said.

“During the course of investigating those recalls, it was determined that production began using a sturdier gasket material in association with the model year change from 2003 to 2004”, GM said in April.

There is plenty of evidence of the problem in the consumer complaint database kept by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which the agency monitors for safety problems.