A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Subaru over DENSO fuel pumps alleging the company knew the parts in its vehicles were defective when it sold them to consumers. The automaker didn’t include all affected vehicles in its recall of the pumps.
Which Subaru cars are recalled?
Subaru recalled more than 188,000 of model year 2019 Subaru Impreza, Outback, Legacy, and Ascent vehicles in April to replace the pumps because they could fail if the impellers absorbed fuel and cracked. This could cause the impeller to strike the body of the fuel pump, making the fuel pump fail and causing the vehicle to stall.
Consumers in the class action say that by knowingly selling vehicles with the defective DENSO fuel pumps, the automaker exposed them to extreme dangers and death if their vehicle stalled while driving. Occupants of stalled vehicles would be placed in harm’s way while trying to get their vehicle off the road and stranded on the side of the road.
Furthermore, Subaru didn’t let consumers know when their vehicles would get the new fuel pumps, nor did the company tell owners to stop driving their affected Subaru vehicle, the lawsuit states. And, the company should have recalled 2013 through 2019 models years instead of just 2019 models because those model year vehicles also contain DENSO fuel pumps with part numbers that begin with 42022, the consumers claim.
The lawsuit states:
“Given the inherent dangers of driving Class Vehicles, Subaru at a minimum should have contacted purchasers and lessees and offered them free loaner vehicles of comparable make, model, or value of the Class Vehicle they drive until it could devise and implement a fix or take other action to protect consumers’ safety.”
Subaru said it had received 24 complaints from July 2019 to January 2020 about engines failing to start, eight complaints where the engines had lost power while driving at slow speeds or immediately after the vehicles were started, and one report of a fuel pump failure while driving at highway speeds. However, the latter report was from outside the United States. The company also received 245 warranty complaints about the fuel pumps but no reports of crashes or injuries related to the defective part.
Subaru said that the fuel pump recall began June 5, 2020 and that dealerships would replace the defective parts with newer versions.
Auto Lawyers
Beasley Allen continues to work on numerous auto defect class actions against many major automobile manufacturers like VW, Toyota, General Motors, Ford, and even some suppliers. These cases continue to be filed because of corporate misconduct in designing and manufacturing unsafe vehicles purchased by consumers, corporations, and state agencies. We continue to investigate these automobile problems for class relief treatment. For more information or to discuss a claim, contact Clay Barnett in our Atlanta office, or use the form below.
