A worldwide recall of some types of Mazda cars has been issued because of corrosion in a small shock absorber on the tailgate and not  the tailgate itself, local agent GasanZammit said.

The corrosion is caused by the type of road salt crystals used to clear snow from the roads and this therefore places no risk to Maltese owners, the company said.

Earlier, the company had said that some 222 Mazda vehicles in Malta have been identified as being affected by a worldwide recall.

The Mazda Motor Corporation announced earlier this month that it would be recalling a total of 2.3 million vehicles worldwide over potential problems with their tailgates, as well as a separate issue involving diesel engines.

According to the carmaker, the vehicles to be recalled were produced between December 2007 and December 2015.

A spokeswoman from GasanZammit said Mazda had yet to start the recall campaign, since “parts for replacing are still not available”.

Those clients whose cars are affected will be informed once parts are available and when Mazda gives the go-ahead

Those clients whose cars were affected, the spokeswoman said, would be informed by the importer once the parts were available and when Mazda gave the go-ahead.

The Japanese carmaker has said that it will be recalling around 390,000 vehicles in Japan alone – including the Mazda 3, which is available as a sedan or hatchback – to fix the damper stays on their rear gates, which may corrode and break if exposed to salt.

An additional 1.85 million vehicles situated in overseas markets will also be recalled, however the carmaker has yet to give a regional breakdown.

The carmaker is Japan’s fifth-largest and sold roughly 1.5 million vehicles in the year ended March, mainly in North America.

Earlier this summer, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp recalled 3.37 million cars worldwide over possible defects involving airbags and emissions control units.

At the time, the local importers for Toyota had said that no vehicles were affected.