Seat Spain to Recall Thousands of Cars over Potential ‘Accident Risk’

The Transport Ministry of Spain has warned of the ‘risk of an accident’ in some Seat Leons due to a problem in the engine camshaft.

THE models affected were produced between 2014 and 2015 and are fitted with a 1.2 TSI engine. The camshaft is a component that controls the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves for fuel and gases to the engine.

The ministry has reported that it has discovered that “there is a possibility that the intake camshaft variator pulley will break. As a result, the variator may fail and damage the timing belt.” Timing belt failure on any car causes catastrophic damage and very costly repairs.

The timing belt is a rubber belt that synchronises the actions of both the camshaft and the crankshaft to keep your valves safely moving and keep your engine in good condition. If the timing belt that is a key part of the internal combustion engine is broken, this can cause the broken timing belt to destroy the engine. This fault incident report was dated July 14, 2020, in the agency’s alert network.

Seat has contacted the Catalan consumer authorities and is also contacting the owners of the affected vehicles, via a recall notice, to replace the camshaft belt. Normally under these circumstances, the manufacturer will cover all costs of the repair, but it is worth checking with your local Seat dealer first in case there are invisible costs like oil changes etc.

So far, there is no mention of the fault on the company’s website but this could well change when owners realise there is a problem with the car. Seat recently released a new vehicle, the Arona, a compact 5-door SUV.