by Brad Anderson
After numerous delays and needing to sell $123 million worth of its car collection to fix technical issues for the Artura, McLaren has already issued the first recall for the hybrid supercar.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall notice has revealed that select McLaren Artura models were produced with cold formed nuts on the high-pressure fuel pipes. Vehicle loads can loosen the male threaded outlet connection of the direct injection fuel pump. If this nut becomes loose, fuel may leak onto surrounding engine components, potentially triggering a fire.
McLaren states that the cold formed nut may have a lower residual torque rating than is necessary.
The British car manufacturer had originally intended on using fully machined nuts on the Artura’s fuel pipes. However, in March 2021, the supplier said it was experiencing a shortage of machined nuts and proposed switching to cold form nuts. These had been validated by both the supplier and in durability testing by McLaren.
Watch: Is The McLaren Artura The Hypercar Supercar To Buy?
Fast forward to June 2022, an Artura experienced a fuel leak on a racetrack and it was soon discovered that the cold formed nut of the left-hand high-pressure fuel pipe had loosened. McLaren thought it had fixed the issue by validating a new tightening procedure for the cold formed nuts but in November 2022, a different Artura experienced a fuel leak while being driven on a track by one of the carmaker’s race drivers.
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To fix the issue, McLaren will now install new high-pressure fuel pipes with 16.5 mm fully machined nuts with cut threads. A total of 164 examples are involved in the recall which were manufactured between October 8, 2021 and November 14, 2022. Most Artura models built after September 2022 are not involved because McLaren started using fully machined nuts in production in September.
