General Motors recalled 303,000 units of its new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pick-up trucks over fire risks.
On Friday, General Motors Company announced the recall of over 300,000 units of its pick-up trucks in the United States for software reprogramming to prevent fire accidents.
To date, eight fires involving those pickup trucks have been reported. Fortunately, there were no casualties and reported deaths.
With the first released trucks, parts of its exhaust system could overheat and cause fire especially if the weather is frigid.
By reprogramming the software, which could only last for 20 minutes, the Detroit, Michigan-based multinational corporation believes that it could be fixed.
General Motors Corp. said the truck owners may know they are in trouble when the "check engine" light blinks continuously. Another indicator could be the "engine power reduced" notification that generally places a vehicle in a "limp-home" mode.
Limp home mode is a default setting in the computer boxes of fuel-injected cars. It is designed to take control of the engine when a serious problem is detected; which would otherwise make the vehicle "undriveable" or cause possible engine or transmission damages.
One more sign owners can take as a clue of trouble is the roughness of an engine upon ignition. If this is experienced, owners should not let the trucks still or unattended.
According to USA Today, owners will receive mails next week about the matter, but General Motors encourages owners to make appointments with their dealers sooner for immediate fix to avoid any accidents.
The recollection of the trucks equipped with 4.3-liter and 5.3 liter engines can cause the company potential embarrassment because those are among the most important units in its lineup, plus the fact that those are all new for the 2014 model year.
According to news.pickuptrucks.com, in December 2013, Chevrolet Silverado is the continent's second best-selling automobile after Ford's F-Series pickup.
