Toyota Motor Corp. in its second-largest recall announcement, said yesterday that it would call back 6.39 million vehicles globally after uncovering five different faults involving parts ranging from steering to seats.

A number of Maltese owners will be affected but the lists of European models and Japanese imports are still being compiled.

Once the lists are received, Toyoyta’s agent in Malta, Michael Debono Ltd, will contact its customers, while Transport Malta will contact those who either bought the cars second-hand, from overseas or via other means.

A spokesman for Michael Debono Ltd said that there were three separate recalls involving a spiral cable, an instrument reinforcement panel and a seat rail.

“The recall first involves a check to verify what needs to be changed following which we will be able to verify whether some parts need to be reaplced – at no charge to the owner,” he said.

“The time it will take will vary according to the recall as well as to the parts which will need to be replaced. We are still waiting for replacements to be shipped.”

The world’s biggest automaker said it was not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by the glitches, which were found in 27 Toyota models including the RAV4 and Yaris subcompact.

Toyota said faults were also found in the Pontiac Vibe and the Subaru Trezia, two models the automaker built for General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries.

The automaker did not say how much the recalls would cost, and it was not clear if the faults stemmed from Toyota’s suppliers or its manufacturing process.

The move by Toyota to announce five different recalls on a single day from Tokyo comes as major automakers face increasing scrutiny in the US on how quickly they take preventive safety action and how quickly they share information with regulators and the public.

Some 3.5 million vehicles were being recalled to replace a spiral cable that could be damaged when the steering wheel is turned. That could cause the air bag to fail in the event of a crash. In total, about 2.34 million of the vehicles to be recalled were sold in North America. Another 810,000 were sold in Europe.

In the second-largest of the Toyota recalls, some 2.32 million three-door models made between January 2005 and August 2010 are being recalled to check for a fault in the seat rails that could cause the seat to slide forward in a crash, risking injury for the driver or passengers. The other recalls are for faulty steering column brackets, windshield wiper motors and engine starters.

Toyota’s 6.39 million vehicle recall is its largest announced on a single day since October 2012, when it called back 7.43m Yaris, Corolla and other models to fix faulty power window switches.

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