McLaren Artura recalled in America to inspect fuel leaks

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McLaren is recalling a total of 164 Artura cars in the Untited States to inspect the nuts for the high pressure fuel pipe, which may loosen, resulting in a fuel leak and increased risk of fire. Arturas manufactured between October 8 2021 to November 14 2022 (VIN range: SBM16AEA3PW000177 to SBM16AEA1PW000372) are part of this recall campaign.

In the documents submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), McLaren explains that its nut supplier switched from fully machined nuts to cold formed nuts in early 2021 due to an imminent stock shortage; the company was notified about this. And although these nuts were tested for their durability, in June 2022 a fuel leak occured on a racetrack in an Artura with only ~1,000 km on the odo. Upon investigation, it was found that these cold formed nuts require bespoke tightening procedure compared with the procedure used for the machined nuts. In simple terms, it was screwed with insufficient torque, or so the folks at McLaren thought.

The company began reworking on all the vehicles which had cold formed nuts using the bespoke tightening procedure. Note, at this point, the Artura was only revealed but not delivered to the public. In September 2022, the fully machined nuts were back in stock, which was a good news. But the bad news was that in November 2022, another Artura (test vehicle) with ~2,800 km on the odo was driven on a racetrack by a pro driver, and a fuel leak occurred. Upon inspection, it was found that the cold formed nut of the left-hand high-pressure fuel pipe had loosened at the pump outlet connection.

Which means that the root cause of the problem was not insufficient torque but the use of cold formed nuts itself. It was concluded that these nuts can loosen when subjected to aggressive driving—especially on a racetrack. But the conclusion was late for some of the Arturas as they were already at their new owner’s hands. But fortunately, no incidents/injuries on public roads have been reported due to this issue.

But anyway, owners may contact their McLaren dealers to get the nuts and/or fuel pipes replaced free of cost. McLaren customer service number in America is 1-646-429-8916.

Source: NHTSA