Japanese car-maker Toyota today said its association with component suppliers in India needs "fine-tuning"

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to avoid situations like a vehicle recall here.

The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar group, recalled 41,000 units of its Etios sedan and Liva compact car last month to replace a faulty inlet hose pipe to the vehicles' fuel tank.

"We have made our endeavour to develop the Indian market, that is meeting affordability, with Etios and Liva. For this, we had to select new suppliers. This association is not so old and so needs fine-tuning," Toyota Motor Asia-Pacific President Hiroji Onishi told PTI at the 11th Auto Expo here.

The company had faced some problems regarding parts and had to recall certain models, but it hopes to overcome the issue with the help of its suppliers, he said.

The two models were recalled to replace the filler hose (inlet pipe to the fuel tank) as there was a chance of cracking, which could cause a fuel leakage when the tank is filled to the brim. All the cars produced since the launch of the vehicles till October 8 this year were covered under this exercise.

"Our first action is to give a good quality replacement. Now we are getting new parts from the same suppliers," Onishi said, adding that the company does not have any plan to change this particular supplier.

In 2008 also, Toyota had announced a recall of around 20,000 units of its Innova multi-utility vehicle in India to repair a defective part that could have led to an oil leakage.

The auto major invested Rs 3,200 crore to set up its second manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, where the cars are being produced.

In addition, the company is investing Rs 1,650 crore to ramp up its production capacity by one lakh units and for increasing localisation of components by 2014.