Just when you think you’ve heard enough about defective air bags, NHTSA announces even more recalls. In all cases, dealers will repair the vehicles at no cost.
Toyota is expanding its recall of cars with Takata’s air bags, adding another 198,000 vehicles to the list. The latest announcement includes certain model year 2008-2010 Lexus SC, 2008 Toyota Corolla, and 2008 Toyota Corolla Matrix, and 2008 Pontiac Vibe vehicles. These cars (and millions more) have a defective passenger side front air bag that has been known to rupture and expel metal fragments, causing serious injury or death.
Meanwhile, Chrysler is recalling certain model year 2015 Chrysler 200 vehicles because during service work, the cars might have had either the Occupant Classification Module or the Seat Cushion Foam of the front passenger seat replaced instead of the both pieces together, which make up a complete set. Therefore, the occupant detection and classification system may not be calibrated, which can cause the passenger air bag to improperly deploy in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury.
Similarly, Ford is recalling certain model year 2016 F-150 trucks because the Occupant Classification System that calibrates the air bag deployment level may incorrectly classify an adult as a child when the seat massage feature is activated. In this case, the problem is caused by a software bug. If an adult is incorrectly classified as a child, the passenger frontal air bag will not deploy during a crash, increasing the risk of injury.
