Fuel Pump Shutdown May Cause Loss of Drive Power – 2022-2023 Mercedes-Benz Metris

December 21, 2023 NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 23V881000

Fuel Pump Shutdown May Cause Loss of Drive Power

A loss of drive power can increase the risk of a crash.

 

NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V881

Manufacturer Daimler Vans USA, LLC

Components FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE

Potential Number of Units Affected 13,726

 

Summary

Daimler Vans USA, LLC (DVUSA) is recalling certain 2022-2023 Mercedes-Benz Metris vehicles. The fuel pump may shutdown, causing a loss of drive power.

 

Remedy

Dealers will replace the fuel pump, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed February 16, 2024. Owners may contact DVUSA customer service at 1-877-762-8267. DVUSA’s number for this recall is 23P4790205. This recall is an expansion of NHTSA recall number 23V-444.

 

Notes

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.

 

Check for Daimler Vans Recalls

 

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DATE: January, 2024

2023120011

Replace Fuel Delivery Module SUPPLEMENT (23V444)

This is to notify you of an Pending Recall Campaign to replace fuel delivery module on approximately 13,726 Metris vehicles ranging from MY 2022-2023. The recall campaign will be visible on the www.safercar.gov website and may generate questions from customers. All affected VINs will be flagged as “PENDING” in VMI and cannot be sold.

 

Issue

Mercedes-Benz AG has determined that on certain Metris (447 platform) vehicles, the fuel pump impeller might not meet specifications in regards to material characteristics. As a consequence, the impeller might deform. It might therefore come into contact with the fuel pump housing, leading to a mechanical resistance. In some instances, this could lead to a shutdown of the fuel pump. As a result, the vehicle could lose propulsion, and increase the risk of a crash or injury.

 

What We’re Doing

MBUSA is conducting a voluntary recall. A Mercedes-Benz dealer will replace the fuel delivery module on the affected vehicles.

 

Parts

The part are not yet available.

 

Given this notice, it is a violation of Federal law for a dealer to sell or lease any new vehicles in dealer inventory covered by this notification until the vehicle has been repaired.

Loaner and demonstrator vehicles may continue to be driven, but must not be retailed until repaired.

Additionally, given this notice, it is a violation of Federal Law for rental companies to rent new vehicles covered by this notification until the vehicle has been repaired.

 

Customer Notification Timeline

An owner notification letter will be mailed in February, 2024

 

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In the beginning of June 2022, MBAG launched initial investigations based on individual field reports from outside the US alleging inconsistent power delivery. MBAG hypothesized that, the function of the fuel pump might have been impaired without having any initial indications in regards to common influencing factors on the field cases in this relation. In July 2022, MBAG began retrieving fuel pumps from affected vehicles in the field and analyzing them in coordination with the supplier. Over the next several months, MBAG conducted analyses of the material together with the supplier, as well as the production processes at the supplier and its sub-suppliers. Through the end of the year, MBAG conducted numerous and varied tests in coordination with its tier one supplier, including fuel swelling behavior, structural damage and notched impact resistance tests. In December 2022, these intensive analyses and tests identified an irregularity in individual raw material batches used for the suspect fuel pump impellers, sourced from a sub-supplier. Based on that determination, in January 2023, MBAG’s supplier of the suspect fuel pump started investigations to identify the potentially affected vehicle population by tracking the material flow within the multi-supplier chain from the raw material sub-supplier up to the fuel pump manufacturer. At the same time, the fuel pump supplier implemented several changes in its production process, including a replacement of the raw material supplier, changing the injection molding process at the injection molding supplier and implementing more quality controls within the supplier chain. Through May 2023, MBAG and its fuel pump supplier conducted further testing and analyses to identify potential influencing factors and determine potential consequences of material and process anomalies at different steps of the production process. In May 2023, MBAG’s fuel pump supplier determined the scope of potentially affected fuel pumps, which was then used to identify the potentially affected vehicle population.

On June 16, 2023, MBAG determined that a potential safety risk cannot be ruled out and decided to conduct a recall.

MBAG is currently aware of 2,031 warranty claims/field reports/service reports received from 30.08.2021 to 23.05.2023 in the USA. MBAG is not aware of any claims of injury, crashes or death worldwide due to this malfunction.

In July 2023, during the course of its worldwide product monitoring, MBAG identified additional field reports alleging inconsistent power delivery. MBAG’s initial review of these field reports determined that some of the vehicles involved in these reports were outside the recall population determined earlier in May 2023.

Based on a detailed analysis of field data, MBAG hypothesized that the occurrences described in these new field reports might be related to a supplier error similar to that identified in recall NHTSA #23V444. During October and November 2023, MBAG and its supplier conducted additional investigations to identify a potential root cause for the reported incidents, including retrieving damaged parts from vehicles for examination and analysis.

Based on these analyses, MBAG determined that additional batches of raw material used by its fuel pump supplier may also have deviated from specifications, and thus resulted in similar consequences as described before. As a result, the number of potentially affected vehicles is larger than the population initially identified by MBAG’s fuel pump supplier. On December 8, 2023, MBAG determined that a potential safety risk for the identified additional vehicles cannot be ruled out. Therefore, the company decided to expand the vehicle population for this recall to include additional vehicles whose fuel pump impellers were manufactured using batches of raw materials that were identified as containing this defect.

MBAG is aware of 1,901 related warranty claims or field reports received between May 14, 2022 to November 15, 2023. These claims and reports are in addition to the 2,031 claims and reports that MBAG received between August 30, 2021 and May 5, 2023 (identified in the Report submitted by MBAG on June 26,

2023). MBAG is not aware of any claims or reports of injury, fatality, or property damage worldwide related to this defect.

 

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Loss of Drive Power from Fuel Pump Shutdown – 2021-2022 Mercedes-Benz Metris & Sprinter

 

Loss of Drive Power from Fuel Pump Shutdown – 2021-2022 Mercedes-Benz Metris & Sprinter

 

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2 Affected Products

Vehicle

MAKE	MODEL	YEAR
MERCEDES-BENZ	METRIS	2022-2023

 

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5 Associated Documents

Defect Notice 573 Report

RCLRPT-23V881-7553.PDF 213.861KB

 

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Recall Acknowledgement

RCAK-23V881-5356.pdf 645.563KB

 

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Chronology Report

RMISC-23V881-2433.pdf 66.892KB

 

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Amended Chronology Report

RMISC-23V881-7343.pdf 49.201KB

 

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Manufacturer Notices(to Dealers,etc)

RCMN-23V881-3457.pdf 284.033KB

 

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Latest Recalls Documents

For the Latest and Most recent Recall Information Visit the link below…

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/documentList.xhtml?docId=23V881&docType=RCL

 

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