Thousands of Holden vehicles across Australia are being urgently recalled over a potentially deadly manufacturing defect.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications announced this week almost 14,000 recalls have been issued for Holden ZB Commodore cars, sold to customers between 2017 and 2020.

The recall notice says the car’s brake booster may fail due to the defect, affecting 13,898 vehicles.

“Due to a manufacturing defect, the brake booster may fail. If this occurs the stopping distance in the un-boosted condition would exceeds the distance prescribed by the Australian Design Rule (ADR) 31/03,” the department says.

“The vehicles is not compliant with the vehicle standard (ADR) 31/03-Brake Systems for Passenger Cars.”

It warns if the brake booster does not operate as intended, “it could increase the risk of an accident causing serious injury or death to vehicle occupants and/or other road users”.

Owners of affected vehicles will be contacted by General Motors Australia and New Zealand, the department says. They can also contact their local dealer to have their vehicle’s electronic brake control module software updated, for free.

The full list of affected vehicle identification numbers can be found here.