You’re cruising down the road, your McLaren Senna’s engine roaring along as those around you look, do a double take, and inherit a confused expression as they try to decipher whether it’s an atrocious looking Transformer or a sports car. “Hmph,” you think. “Peasants. They wouldn’t know a Track Weapon (TM) if it were sitting next to them in traffic, which one is. Their poor souls.”
But you’ll soon come to learn that it is, in fact, you with the poor soul that day, as you arrive home to news that a recall notice has arrived for your majestic yet misunderstood $1 million supercar. Imagine what that’ll do for its confidence, especially after all of those looks it got in traffic. Break the news softly, alright?
McLaren submitted recall documents for the Senna to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Aug. 21, recalling all 129 Sennas sold in the U.S. prior to Aug. 8 of this year. (McLaren said it would only make 500 cars when it announced the Senna in late 2017, each with a starting price of $958,966.)
The cars, McLaren said, are being recalled for a potential issue with the engine harness that could result in them experiencing limp mode, torque limitation, engine stalling or misfiring, or overheating that “could cause consequential damage to the car.” McLaren said it noticed the problem while inspecting a customer car on Aug. 1, and decided to do the recall a couple of weeks later.
Advertisement
McLaren said it isn’t aware of any incidents, warranty claims or complaints regarding the issue, but here are the full details, via the recall documents:
A branch of the vehicle engine harness can potentially come into contact with a metal link pipe heatshield. If there is contact, there may over time be chafing of the engine harness. If this chafing breaches the harness heatshield wrap and the harness outer sleeve, this could lead to damage to the wires contained within the engine harness bundle.
McLaren’s sample testing (of 61 vehicles) showed that 15% of vehicles had marking on the outer cover of the engine harness as a result of chafing. Although 0% of vehicles tested had any damage to the wiring contained within the engine harness, it is possible that, over time, damage may occur.
Advertisement
The recall documents said drivers will “receive a warning prior to any of the potential safety risks occurring,” with the warning depending on the “nature of the consequence.” Here’s the rundown, via the documents:
Ahead of an engine stall or unburnt fuel in the catalyst, the driver will receive a dashboard warning light, a dashboard warning message and an audio alert signal. In addition to the vehicle warning alerts aimed at alerting the driver, the driving characteristics of the vehicle would also change to the extent that a driver would become aware of an issue – reduction of engine power, and a change in engine/exhaust noise and misfiring.
Advertisement
McLaren said the fix is simple but didn’t give a blanket notification date for the recall like most other, higher-volume manufacturers do, only saying McLaren retailers “must contact customers and make service appointments as soon as reasonably practical.”
Until then, though, perhaps pay a little less attention to the Transformers fans trying to figure out which character your car is and pay a little more attention to its warning lights and handling. You may need the extra insight.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
