Mazda is recalling more than 300,000 Mazda 3 and 5 vehicles in North America to repair problems with the power-steering system that could lead to crashes.

The car maker had dealt with the same problem in Japan a year ago.

The Japanese firm told the US government the recall involved model year 2007-2009 Mazda 3s and Mazda 5s built from April 2007 through November 2008. It covers 215,000 vehicles in the US and an additional 100,000 vehicles in Canada and Mexico.

Mazda said the vehicles could have a sudden loss of power-steering assist, making it difficult for the driver to steer the vehicle and increase the risk of a crash. The company said it had not received any reports of crashes or injuries that resulted from the problem.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation on June 28 into steering problems in 2007-2009 Mazda 3s, citing 33 complaints of steering problems, including three crashes.

Mazda started fixing vehicles in Japan for the same problem last year and has investigated the issue for two years.

In a letter to NHTSA last week, Mazda said it was first informed of similar steering problems in Japan in March 2008. After receiving additional reports, the company began its own probe in July 2008.

By the summer of 2009, Mazda said it found that the problem was caused by rust forming inside the high-pressure pipe in the power steering system. Rust particles could enter the power steering pump and cause it to go into a fail safe mode and shut down to avoid overheating.

Mazda conducted an "improvement campaign" last summer to repair vehicles in Japan "due to a high occurrence rate of this problem", according to the letter to NHTSA. But the company did not issue a recall in North America, instead issuing a technical service bulletin to dealers since the "occurrence rate was low".

The service bulletin included repair procedures for customers who reported the steering problems.