German carmaker Mercedes-Benz recalls nearly 1m older vehicles worldwide due to potential problems with its braking system.
Over the weekend, the company said it would contact the owners of the vehicles because their brakes could be affected by “advanced corrosion.”
The recall affects a total of 993,407 vehicles, including 70,000 in Germany. Mercedes recalled a similar number of cars last year over a safety issue with its emergency call system.
The company said the vehicles in the latest recall were built between 2004 and 2015 and were from the ML and GL series of SUVs and R-Class luxury minivans.
“We have found that in some of those vehicles, the function of the brake booster could be affected by advanced corrosion in the joint area of the housing,” Mercedes said in a statement on Saturday.
“It might be possible for a particularly strong or hard braking manoeuvre to cause mechanical damage to the brake booster,” it said.
“In such a sporadic case, it would not be possible to decelerate the vehicle via the service brake. Thus the risk of a crash or injury would be increased,” it added.
Mercedes said it is starting the recall immediately and that the process will include inspecting potentially faulty vehicles and replacing parts if necessary.
Last February, the company recalled more than 1m cars due to a flaw in its “eCall” feature, which alerts emergency services of an accident and relays the location of the vehicle.
The defect meant that it was possible that an incorrect location could be sent.
Since the problem was software related, it was mostly done “over the air” – via wireless downloads using the car’s existing mobile data connection.