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DETROIT — The auto industry's recall carousel of 2010 continued this week, with General Motors pulling about 1.5 million units Tuesday for potential fire resulting from the heated washer fluid system in certain models igniting.

The automaker said about 1.37 million of the potentially affected models are U.S. vehicles, while 125,022 units are in Canada or Mexico and 38,093 are exported units to other parts of the world.

GM said it is unaware of this condition having to do with any injuries or crashes.

Units under the recall include the following:

—2006-2009 model year: Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS, Hummer H2.

—2008-2009 model year: Buick Enclave, Cadillac CTS.

—2007-2009 model year: Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT; Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe; GMC Acadia, Sierra, Yukon, Yukon XL; Saturn Outlook.

2009 model year: Chevrolet Traverse.

"While our analysis shows the number of incidents is very small compared with the number of vehicles on the road, we want our customers to have complete peace of mind," stated Jeff Boyer, executive director of safety for the automaker.

"We always want to make sure customers can count on the safety and quality of their GM vehicle," he added.

The automaker will start sending out notices to owners this month, but GM emphasized that owners can schedule an appointment with a dealer to remove the system at any time.

As far as the fix, the heated washer fluid module will be taken out of the vehicles by dealership personnel, who will redirect the washer fluid.

GM will voluntarily be giving $100 each to owners and lessees of the impacted vehicles, since the system will be disabled.

"This was a unique technology available from only one supplier, and that supplier has stopped manufacturing, which left no opportunity to collaborate on an improved design," Boyer emphasized. "We want to be clear that the voluntary payment to customers is for the loss of the feature, not the recall." 

This is not the first trouble GM has had with this system. The automaker recalled it less than two years ago after it found that the control-circuit ground wire could potentially be overheated from a short circuit on the printed circuit board.

During the fix of that recall, there was an in-line fuse added into the heated washer module wiring. And now, problems have surfaced from some of the vehicles repaired under that recall.

Specifically, "there have been new reports of thermal incidents on HWFS modules after this improvement was installed," according to the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation, referring to the August 2008 recall fix.

"These incidents resulted from a new failure mode attributed to the device's thermal protection feature. The significance varies from minor distortion to considerable melting of the plastic around the HWFS fluid chamber," ODI noted. 

The automaker added: "The government closed its initial investigation after the 2008 recall. GM continued to monitor the performance of the heated washer fluid module in the field and continued communications with NHTSA.

"In June 2009, a new and second failure mode was identified by GM with the first confirmed report consisting of smoke only," it added. "Since then, GM has been made aware of five fires."

Chrysler Announces Recalls

Moving on, it was also revealed recently that Chrysler recalled about 289,000 model-year 2006 through 2010 Jeep Wranglers; just more than 25,000 Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass units from model-year 2007; and about 285,000 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan units from model years 2008 and 2009.

As far as Wranglers, ODI notes that: "There may be contact between the right and left front fender lines and the right front and left rear brake tubes, which could cause wear of the tubes causing a brake fluid leak."

It added: "A brake fluid leak can cause partial loss of service brakes at the affected wheel, increasing the risk of a crash."

The Caliber and Compass recall, meanwhile, deals with the accelerator pedal. ODI indicates that "the pivot bushings in vehicles with oversized accelerator pedal bearing pockets may become dislodged and potentially cause the accelerator pedal to bind or stick.

"Should the pedal bind or become stuck, it can be overcome by smart brakes, which override the accelerator pedal in certain conditions," ODI added.

Finally, the minivan recall has to do with wiring in the electrical system.

"Some of the vehicle may have been built with an improperly routed wire harness that may have a condition where the lower sliding door hinge bracket can make contact and wear through the wire installation," the ODI site shared.

"A short circuit could occur inside the sliding door, overheating the latch, possibly resulting it a fire," it added.

With all of Chrysler's aforementioned recalls, the automaker will be sending notification to owners and indicated that its dealers will repair the Wrangler and minivan issues, and as far as the Caliber and Compass issue, it will inspect affected accelerator assemblies and replace them, as well.

All of this will be for free to owners of the models.