Subaru SUVs overwhelmed by shampoo scent, recall 2.2 million cars • The Register

Japanese automaker Subaru told the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration that it planned to recall about 1.3 million vehicles in the United States because of emissions issues. It plans to do the same elsewhere in North America and Japan, bringing the total recall to about 2.2 million.

The problem is not the emissions of the vehicles. A chemical compound emitted by certain consumer products such as shampoos and cosmetics is at the origin of brake light failures. The company has not specified whether passengers, mechanics or others are the source of the chemical.

"It's a voluntary reminder of the brake light switch, a Subaru discovery," said Dominick Infante, communications director for Subaru America, in an email to The register. "This comes from the use of silicone-containing consumer products that can seep into the brake switch housing and deposit a layer on the contactor contactor.If the contactor loses the conductivity of the terminal, the rear brake lights may not turn on. "

While some reports have involved scents in the malfunction of brake lights, Infante said that it was not clear that perfumes could be blamed. "The scented shampoo contains silicone, scented cleaning products have silicone," he explained. "The problem is more likely to be with cleaning products around the brake pedals or with another silicon-containing substance that releases silicon gas."

He said that he was seeking clarification from Subaru Japan, in case something gets lost in the translation.

Since fragrances tend not to depend on silicone, the culprits are more scented products – shampoos, skin creams, styling substances or cleansers – which include silicone-based chemical compounds called siloxanes.

In the 2012 product literature, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd., based in Japan, explains that a failure of the electrical contacts – which would prevent the brake lights from operating – can be caused by various environmental factors, including organic materials, such as organic gases and inorganic materials, such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia gas. Volatile organic compounds can also break the circuits.

"Manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment report that the low molecular weight siloxane can also cause contact breakdowns at low voltages and low currents," says the leaflet.

Wacker, a German chemicals company, also observes in its product literature that Siloxane LMW is known to interfere with electrical connections.

Last year, researchers at the University of Boulder, Colorado, published a study suggesting that users of siloxane-containing consumer products leave a trail of chemicals "of a magnitude comparable to the emissions of the major components of vehicle exhaust gases, such as benzene ". traffic."

Siloxane has been considered to be generally non-toxic, but some scientists are challenging this position, particularly in the context of siloxane LMW.

According to Infante, only a few brake light failures have been reported: 33 so far. And he pointed out that in the rare cases where the brake lights do not come on, the brakes themselves are not affected.

Subaru intends to contact the affected customers and replace the switch. The affected models potentially include: Crosstrek 2013-2017; Impreza 2008-2016; and 2014-2016 Forester. However, not all lines of these vehicles use the same brake switch, said Infante. The notifications, he said, will be sent to those whose vehicle identification number is assigned. ®