Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday that in voluntary checks of 5,598 large vehicles made after an accident last month in Yokohama, it found that hubs on 8.6 percent of them showed signs of abrasions.
The automobile company blamed the unusual wear on insufficient maintenance and excessive loading. It refused to comment on any possible links between its findings and the cause of the Jan. 10 accident in which a wheel came loose from a vehicle and killed a female pedestrian.
The company admitted that the percentage is "higher than expected" and announced it will offer free checkups by April 21 for all 123,951 tractors, dump trucks, buses and other large vehicles on the road that use similar hubs.
According to company specifications, hubs should be replaced if erosion exceeds 0.8 mm. The hubs of 479 of the 5,598 units it had checked by Tuesday exceeded that limit.
An abrasion of 0.8 mm would not immediately pose a danger to the driver, the company claimed, saying a vehicle is drivable for at least another 1 million km, provided the vehicle is properly maintained.