First, it was a 2003 recall for same-year Liberties with lower ball joint problems. After some of the replacements were apparently botched, Chrysler issued a new recall three years later that included 800,000 2002-2006 Liberties, addressing LBJ’s that were showing "excessive wear and looseness." This time around, it’s the upper ball joints that are the problem on over 300,000 ’02-’03 Liberties. There’ve been a series of high-profile incidents in which the BJ’s have separated, dumping the body onto one or both front tires and thus seriously ruining the driver’s day. At least one ball joint has separated at 75 mph, and a handful have let go while the driver was either pulling out into traffic or making a left turn, leaving the stricken Liberty stranded in the path of oncoming traffic. To make a bad situation worse, Chrysler hasn’t yet actually issued a recall on this particular problem, instead awaiting the results of the NHTSA’s "engineering analysis" and attributing complaints to customers’ "confusion about the difference between the [previously recalled] lower and upper ball joints." Sure, yet another recall of the 300,000 affected Liberties wouldn’t be cheap, but can Chrysler afford to hem and haw while Liberty ball joints are coming apart at highway speeds?

Source: AP

This morning, when my alarm went off, I briefly thought it was Saturday. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Here’s the news: 

• The General is going to start road testing the Volt’s new battery packs in June. Since its already flashed pictures of the concept everywhere, I wonder if it’ll leave all the ugly body cladding at home. Regardless, I can’t wait to see some pics of this baby in the wild. Automotive News
• Audi’s mighty diesels have won the last eight years at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and its chances this years don’t look bad either. Allan McNish and his R10 have the pole for Saturday’s race. Auto Observer
• Ford and GM stocks hit historic lows today, but the bright side is that, well, I guess there is no bright side. The funny thing? No one was blaming the new CAFE standards. Freep
• General Motors has just recalled 200,000 Buick Regals and Pontiac Grand Prixs because an oil leak can cause the cars to catch fire when parked. Curiously, there’s no explanation for why the oil is leaking. Detroit News

Ford is recalling 434,593 2005+ Mustangs. Why? Well, a test on a 2007 car revealed that the airbag deployment force was a bit too strong for "an unbelted, front passenger 5th percentile female anthropomorphic test device." Ford is asking affected Mustang owners (check your VIN here) to bring their cars in so that the dealer can "update the software in the restraint control module (RCM)."

The whole concept of having little sensors that weigh front passengers and tell the airbags how hard to deploy sketches me out. I’ve heard plenty of stories of airbag lights flickering while people drive thier modern cars over bumpy roads with light front passengers. Have you guys ever seen this in your cars? Creepy.

Anyway, there’s a good thread on the recall over at Stangnet. Apparently some guys have already taken their cars in for the fix, and it was quite painless (though some owners are paranoid to take their heavily modded Stangs to a dealer, fearing the dealer might attempt to void their factory warranty). Az Pete at Stangnet reports:

Took my ’07 Vert in today. They hook up a scan tool the the PCM, run it for about 35 min, unplug it and return the car. Car was in my sight the entire time, hood was not opened nor was anything else disturbed. Real simple. No effect on any performance.

I assume Az Pete meant RCM and not PCM, but you get the idea. It’s easy as pie.

In the latest of a rash of recalls that have besmirched the reputation of Toyota’s all-new pickup, the company is warning owners of its 4WD 2007 Tundra of possible driveshaft malfunction. A rear driveshaft joint used in up to 16,000 of the vehicles was improperly heat-treated during manufacture, an oversight that could lead to joint failure and separation of the driveshaft. While no accidents have yet occurred, Toyota issued the recall after investigating an owner complaint about noise that turned out to be caused by the faulty joint. While the 16,000 trucks represent a relatively minor recall, the news comes after the Tundra has already been in hot water over faulty tailgates, torque-converters, and camshafts. It’s never easy working the bugs out of a completely redesigned platform, but automakers have found that straightforwardness about the realities of these growing pains is always preferable to pretending they don’t exist.