Nissan recalls 540,000 trucks and minivans

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Nissan is recalling 540,000 vehicles worldwide to fix faulty brake pedal pins and inaccurate fuel gauges.

The Japanese automaker's North American division said no accidents or injuries have been reported, but the company is initiating the recalls based on three reports of brake pedal pins partially disengaging, hindering braking ability.

A separate, unrelated fuel-gauge issue can lead to inaccurate fuel readings in certain trucks and minivans. The gauge may show gas left when the tank is actually empty.

The brake pedal pin recall affects 2008, 2009 and 2010 Nissan Titan, Armada, Quest and Infiniti QX56 models -- about 179,000 of which are in the United States. Owners of these vehicles should bring their their vehicles to a Nissan or Infiniti dealership for a visual inspection, the company said. Repairs will be made as necessary.

The fuel gauge recall affects 419,000 U.S. vehicles, including 2005 through 2008 Nissan Titan, Armada and Infiniti QX56 models, as well as Nissan Frontiers, Pathfinders and Xterras produced between January and March 2006 and between October 2007 and January 2008.

Nissan said it will notify owners affected by the fuel gauge recall as to when they should bring their vehicles into a local dealership for repair. In the meantime, the company encourages customers to keep their tanks at least half-full until their vehicle is inspected.

All vehicles currently on sale are free of the two problems, Nissan said.

"We regret any inconveniences that our customers may experience as we take these precautions," Nissan North America spokesman Kevin Martin said in a statement released Tuesday.

Nissan is the latest automaker to hop on the recall bandwagon.

General Motors earlier on Tuesday announced a recall of 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac models for power steering failures. Honda recalled 952,118 vehicles for problematic airbags in February. And Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles since January for problems related to sudden acceleration, which have been blamed for several accidents resulting in injuries and fatalities.

The bad news comes on the same day reports showed Nissan topped Asian automakers in year-over-year sales increases.

Nissan February sales surged 29% from last year, compared with a 13% increase for Honda and an 11% increase for Hyundai. Recall-plagued Toyota sold 8.7% fewer vehicles than it did a year ago.