Redesigned GM Ignition Switch Didn’t Meet Specs

General Motors Co. has said the defective ignition switch it is recalling in 1.6 million of its 2003-2007 models had been fixed by the 2008 model year. But the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee says switch supplier Delphi Automotive plc indicates otherwise.

Delphi told the committee last Thursday that the redesigned switch, like the original unit, failed to meet GM's own performance standards.

In a letter on Monday to GM CEO Mary Barra, the committee suggests that the newer switch may be linked to 14 fatalities in addition to the 12 cited by GM in the 2003-2007 model recall.

GM said last week it would expand the recall to include all model years, but only because of the chance that some of those newer models may have had their ignition switches replaced with the original flawed design.

A key GM switch specification requires a torque level the amount of twisting force needed to turn the switch on and off between 15 N-cm and 25 N-cm. Delphi tells the committee that most of the original devices it tested had torque readings below 10 N-cm. It says most of the redesigned switches approved by GM in mid-2005 had torque readings of 15 N-cm or less.

The revised switch has a stronger detent plunger, a component that holds the key cylinder in position. The committee says GM has identified Ray DeGiorgio, its lead design engineer for the switch, as approving the updated unit. But Automotive News reports that DeGiorgio said in a legal deposition 12 months ago that he was not aware of a change in the detent plunger design and insisted GM did not approve such an alteration.