It helps to understand the idea behind the verb.
The primary meaning of transitive to recommend means "to offer specific advice".
Of course, a typical flat tire or a broken machine cannot itself recommend that it be fixed. A sentient being (a person, or a device capable of sensing and communicating) recommends.
A photocopier with a computer diagnostic device inside it might recommend that you have the photocopier serviced. But the photocopier itself is not making that recommendation.
That is why "the machine" cannot be moved to the subject position of a sentence where the verb is transitive recommend.
If the sentient being making the recommendation is not important at the moment, and the primary thought is that it would be advisable to do something, we can use so-called "dummy 'It'":
It is recommended that you replace the car's left headlight. It has
burned out.
There, "that you replace the car's left headlight" fills the slot that "it" occupies.
Secondly, to recommend is not to declare a fact as we do when we say "He was manager of the company" or "That plant is poisonous to humans". Offering advice is not a statement of fact. So you will sometimes see the subjunctive used:
It is recommended that the car's left headlight be fixed.
