Toyota recalling 1.7 mln vehicles

The world's top automaker Toyota is recalling 1.7 million vehicles worldwide, including Lexus units, as yet another large recall damages its efforts to restore its reputation.

The majority are being recalled to fix a faulty fuel pump and connecting pipe.

In addition, over 300,000 Lexus sold outside of Japan are being recalled due to a faulty fuel pressure sensor.

Toyota Germany spokesman Ekkardt Sensendorf says the Avensis model is affected.

Ekkart Sensendorf, Toyota Germany spokesman, saying:"We're recalling the vehicles because worldwide there have been 117 case of a smell of petrol, and this is caused by a leak in the fuel pipe."

Toyota's announcement takes the total number of recalled vehicles to almost 16 million since the Japanese carmaker first started having problems in late 2009.

At the time it was scrutinised by U.S. safety regulators over acceleration problems and was blamed for dozens of deaths.

Toyota says no accidents have been reported because of the latest defects.

But this recall has dealt a blow to the automaker's efforts to restore its reputation for quality.

These safety worries have hit Toyota's sales - which slid in the U.S. last year - and it only just managed to hang on to its place at the top of global sales rankings.

Toyota's stock closed almost 2 percent down in Asia.

It wouldn't say how much the latest recalls would cost.

Joanna Partridge, Reuters