Nissan Motors is recalling around 200,000 units of the Pathfinder sports utility vehicle (SUV) alongside its sibling from the Infinity brand. According to reports from the national Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the pre-owned cars are the ones at the most risk of facing the reported problem.
The Japanese car maker recalled the SUVs, mainly those based in areas where high concentrations of salt are applied on the roads to retard freezing, due to them having a high risk of corrosion and rusting of vital parts. This phenomenon makes the cars practically lose value in a used car sale given that a thorough car assessment has been carried.
The Pathfinder manufactured between the years of 1996 and 2004 happens to have a hole in the upper strut housing panel that can allow road salt to enter. This could in turn cause corrosion of the strut tower housing, which can in some cases pull away from the inner hood ledge assembly. The issue can result in grinding noises, increased steering effort and possibly the steering column to break. If that happens, owners may lose steering control, possibly resulting in a crash.
Nissan maintains that fixing the issue is not hard and thus encourages those with the SUV to go to the local dealer to do an inspection of the housing and fix the issue.
