Stellantis has expanded its fire risk recall for a second time, calling back 392 additional UK vehicles built between July and October 2025 with the same fuel pipe defect that sparked fires in France last year.
The latest recall affects 28 models across seven brands: 188 Citroens, 94 Peugeots, 67 Jeeps, 20 Vauxhalls, 20 Fiats, and three DS vehicles, according to Auto Express. All share the 1.2-liter PureTech petrol engine and the identical manufacturing fault Stellantis thought it had fixed months ago.
The problem centers on loose nuts connecting the high-pressure fuel pipe between the pump and rail. Those nuts vibrate loose during operation, fuel leaks onto hot engine components, and in the worst documented cases, the car catches fire while driving.
Affected models include the Citroen C3, C3 Aircross, C4X, and C5 Aircross, DS 3 Crossback and DS 4, Fiat 600, Jeep Avenger, Peugeot 208 and 2008, and the Vauxhall Corsa, Astra, Frontera, Grandland, and Mokka. These are among the UK's most popular compact and crossover models, meaning tens of thousands are on the road right now with the defect.
A Stellantis spokesperson told Auto Express the company has "already started the proactive outreach to vehicle owners" and that the repair involves retightening the fuel pipe nuts and rail screws. The work takes under 30 minutes and costs nothing.
This marks the second expansion of a recall campaign that began in August 2025, when Stellantis brought back approximately 72,000 UK vehicles manufactured between 2023 and 2025 for the same issue. That action followed 11 reported engine fires in France, per Fleet News and GB News.
Now vehicles built as recently as October 2025 are showing identical symptoms, raising questions about whether Stellantis actually fixed the manufacturing process or just recalled the cars already built when the problem surfaced.
The August recall involved loosened nuts on the high-pressure fuel pipe causing leaks that could lead to fires. The February expansion involves loosened nuts on the high-pressure fuel pipe causing leaks that could lead to fires. Same part. Same failure mode. Different production window.
Stellantis described both recalls as voluntary, which means drivers aren't legally required to bring cars in for repair. That language matters for liability purposes but offers little comfort when the documented failure mode is your engine catching fire.
The 1.2-liter PureTech engine appears across Stellantis' European range as a mild-hybrid powertrain option in nearly every compact and crossover the company builds. High volume, shared platform, cost-effective manufacturing. Exactly the kind of engine that powers millions of vehicles when it works and creates recall nightmares when it doesn't.
According to Regit, the original August recall targeted mild-hybrid variants specifically, though the February expansion covers the same engine in additional applications. The company insisted 11 fires in France represented isolated incidents, but expanding the recall twice suggests the problem extends beyond initial estimates.
This follows an even larger crisis Stellantis faced earlier in 2025, when nearly 100,000 Citroen C3 and DS3 owners were issued a "stop-drive" order over potentially deadly Takata airbags. That recall, covering 2009 to 2019 models, left tens of thousands of drivers without transportation while dealers struggled to source replacement parts.
Consumer advocacy group Which? publicly criticized Stellantis for "chaotic" handling of the airbag recall program, with dealers reporting immense pressure to fix customer cars and some warning repairs might not happen until 2026, according to Car Dealer Magazine.
Now those same dealers are managing another wave of fire risk recalls while still clearing the airbag backlog. Stellantis operates seven major brands in the UK, each with separate dealer networks but shared components and manufacturing processes. When a single engine or part fails across all of them simultaneously, the service capacity gets overwhelmed fast.
For owners checking whether their vehicle is affected, Stellantis is contacting registered keepers directly via mail and email. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency also maintains a free recall checker where drivers can enter their registration number to see outstanding safety campaigns.
The repair itself is straightforward mechanically. Technicians retighten the fuel pipe connection nuts to proper torque specifications and secure the rail screws. Half an hour of labor. No parts cost. The concern is whether retightening nuts that loosened due to manufacturing defects or inadequate torque specifications actually solves the underlying problem or just delays the next failure.
If nuts are loosening because the torque specification was wrong, retightening them to the same wrong spec won't help. If they're loosening because of vibration, material fatigue, or thermal cycling that the design didn't account for, temporary fixes won't prevent recurrence.
Stellantis hasn't disclosed whether the August recall vehicles that received repairs have experienced repeat failures. That data would clarify whether this is a manufacturing quality control issue that's been corrected or a fundamental design problem requiring parts replacement rather than retightening.
The timing raises additional questions. Vehicles built through October 2025 are now subject to recall in February 2026. That's a four-month gap between production and recall notification. Either Stellantis didn't catch the problem during that window, or it did and waited to batch the recalls for efficiency.
Neither scenario inspires confidence.
For the 392 owners receiving recall notices this month, the question is simple: do you keep driving the car and hope it doesn't catch fire, or do you immediately book a dealer appointment and lose the vehicle for however long the backlog takes to clear?
Stellantis says the repair takes 30 minutes. Dealers say they're overwhelmed. History suggests the second statement carries more weight than the first.
The broader issue extends beyond these 392 cars. Stellantis produced and sold hundreds of thousands of 1.2-liter PureTech engines across Europe. If the fuel pipe nut loosening problem affects vehicles built through October 2025, how many more cars from November, December, and January are ticking time bombs waiting for recall notices?
The company called this expansion proactive, which is corporate speak for "we found more affected vehicles before they caught fire." Better than reactive. Still not great when the question becomes how many more expansions are coming.
Owners of Stellantis vehicles with the 1.2-liter petrol engine who haven't received recall notices should check their registration against official databases and monitor for symptoms like increased fuel consumption, fuel smell in the cabin, or visible leaks under the vehicle. Those are early warning signs the high-pressure pipe is failing.
The fix is free. The alternative is your car potentially catching fire while you're driving it. That math works out clearly in favor of booking the repair, backlog or not.
For Stellantis, this represents the second major recall crisis in under a year affecting hundreds of thousands of UK vehicles. The airbag situation damaged customer trust. This fuel pipe issue, now expanding twice, suggests systemic quality control problems that go beyond isolated manufacturing defects.
Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, DS, and Alfa Romeo all share platforms, engines, and components. That efficiency drives costs down and profits up when everything works. When it doesn't, a single defective fuel pipe nut affects 28 different models and recalls expand in waves across months.
The 392 owners getting letters this week join the 72,000 from August in the same recall queue. All of them are driving cars with fuel systems that can leak and ignite. Some already have. The rest are waiting to see if they're next or if the dealer can fit them in before the fire starts.
Book the appointment. Drive carefully until it's fixed. And maybe reconsider that PureTech engine for your next purchase.
