Japanese Car Makers To Recall Around 3.4 Million Vehicles for Airbag Trouble

[dharmesh]

Four Japanese automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co are recalling a total of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide as a result of an airbag problem, the companies said on Thursday.

Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp spokesman Toyohiro Hishikawa said the company supplied the airbags related to the recalls.

Toyota is recalling about 1.73 million vehicles globally, including 580,000 vehicles in North America and 490,000 vehicles in Europe because some airbags at the front seat next to the driver may not inflate when necessary, spokesman Ryo Sakai said.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, he said.

There will be no recalls in India by Honda and Nissan, while Toyota will recall only Corollas made between January and June 2003, sources told NDTV Profit.

Toyota will exchange the faulty inflator with new ones, a fix that is expected to take about an hour to two and a half hours for most models, he said. He declined to give the costs related to the recall.

Honda said it is recalling around 1.14 million vehicles worldwide. Nissan said it is recalling about 480,000 vehicles globally, while Mazda Motor Corp said it is recalling about 45,500 vehicles.

Takata has been informed that carmakers will recall about 2 million vehicles globally due to problems with airbags it had supplied, but not 3.4 million, said Hishikawa. Its shares dropped 9 per cent to 1,819 yen on Thursday.

Source : Japanese car makers to recall around 3.4 million vehicles for airbag trouble - NDTVProfit.com

 

[jayadev]

My Salutes to Japanese manufacturers.
Keep Correcting your Little Mistakes!. Because Nobody Slips down by Hills..!! But just Slips by Little Stones.

 

[dharmesh]

Interesting part is Toyota will recall car in India those were manufactured in 2003 .

 

[alexddas]

Big mistake, corrected after 10 years.
Shame on the leading car makers.

 

[Akash]

Good to see that the recall has been made, however it is very unfortunate on the part of these companies that they could find out the issue after almost a decade. With Japanese car makers follows a belief that they have one of the best QC facility. And slipping out on such a critical equipment is definitely not a great thing to do.

 

[CRACING]

This is to alert Honda Car owners and those who are not aware of the latest news.

Honda Malaysia has announced that it is recalling another 143,970 vehicles in the country over these problematic airbag inflators. The affected vehicles are the City (2006-2012 model year), Civic (2006-2011 model year), Civic Hybrid (2007-2011 model year) CR-V (2007-2011 model year), Insight (2011-2012 model year), Jazz (2009-2012 model year) and Stream (2007-2012 model year).

Source: Paultan Automotive News

Taking this into account, we Honda owners are at risk and the same vehicles sold in India doesn't seems to be safe although there happens to be no such incidents here.

Hoping Honda Cars India shall announce recall soon here. Until then be careful with your Honda car(s) when you drive.

Thanks...
Best Regards

 

[CRACING]

Hello all, I have checked latest news about ongoing Takata Air Bag issue and this is what I found and would like to share here.

Ruptured Takata air bags have killed at least eight people, all in Honda vehicles, and injured 98 people, according to NHTSA.

Investigators acknowledged that the exact cause of the exploding air bags remains a mystery, but their probe continues.

They have determined, however, that vehicles that have been operated in hot, humid climates for at least five years are most at risk. That suggests that climate is a contributing factor in the malfunctioning air bag inflators, regulators said.

In a new development, NHTSA said Thursday that it has expanded its investigation to include a side air bag inflator that has ruptured in accidents involving General Motors and Volkswagen vehicles.

The agency said it may hire an independent adviser to oversee the Takata fixes.

At an informational hearing, NHTSA regulators revealed details of Takata's ballistic testing. In those procedures, 450 out of 115,000 recalled inflators have exploded in lab tests.

Passenger-side air bags are 10 times as likely as driver air bags to rupture, regulators said, but they are less likely to cause deaths or injuries. Regulators suspect that may be because front-seat passengers sit farther away from the air bag than drivers.

The agency has ordered a recall of 19 million vehicles — of which 14 million are from BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Honda and Mazda. The rest are from General Motors, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and Daimler.

About 6 million of those vehicles are considered by NHTSA to be of the highest priority because of their location and age.

Production of replacement airbag inflators and harnesses used to mount the devices is proceeding at a rate of about 2.8 million units per month. Other airbag manufacturers are making about 70% of the parts to aid Takata in speeding the repairs.

Still, NHTSA may instruct auto companies to broaden their efforts to repair vehicles quickly.

"Ultimately, Americans need to know that their vehicles have safe, properly working inflators and air bags that will be ready and waiting to save a life when needed," NHTSA's Stephen Ridella said.

Source: Recall of Takata's exploding air bags may expand

While Takata’s shrapnel-shooting airbags have affected millions of vehicles from 11 automakers, Honda is perhaps the one car manufacturer that has felt the brunt of the deadly defect: not only has the company recalled millions of cars, its models have also been responsible for all eight deaths linked to the defect. And now, a new report suggests Honda and Takata kept quiet on a study that questioned the propellent used in the airbags for years.

The New York Times reports that while Honda was assuring regulators that the airbags’ design was not to blame for spewing metal fragments at drivers and passengers upon deployment, the company and Takata were exploring the possibility that the propellent used in the safety devices was the root cause for ruptured airbags.

In fact, at the time in 2012, Takata had commissioned the High Pressure Combustion Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University to study its use of ammonium nitrate.
As a condition of the study, the findings, which were published in a scientific journal, included no mention of Honda or Takata.

The study dates back to at least spring 2010, when the groups first met to discuss the research. When it was completed in 2012, it cast doubt on the use of ammonium nitrate in airbags, suggesting it was too sensitive to pressure changes.

Researchers found that rapidly changing pressure inside an airbag’s steel inflator could trigger a state known as “dynamic burning.” That, in turn, could lead to excessive internal pressure and potentially cause the inflator to rupture.

Chemicals have long been the powerful mechanism behind airbags. That’s why after some crashes, the driver or front-seat passenger in a vehicle may have chemical burns on their skin.

Typically the inside of an airbag contains an igniter that heats an aspirin-sized tablet of compressed chemical. The ensuing reaction fills the airbag with gas, inflating it at speeds reaching a few hundred miles per hour.

Takata began using ammonium nitrate in its airbags in the late 1990s, because of the chemical’s ability to make airbags inflate in a matter of milliseconds.

Despite commissioning the study, Takata reportedly disputed the methodology and dismissed the conclusions, waiting two more years before sharing the research with regulators.

According to a written account proved to the Times from Takata, the company’s engineers argued if the labs findings were true, there would have been far more ruptures reported.

The groups agreed to carry out further research in the form of 10 months of follow-up tests. However, that study never came to fruition.

According to the Times, Takata and Honda’s role in commissioning the Penn State study contradicts public statements made in regulatory filings by the companies which minimized the scope of the defect in their interactions with regulators.

The report eventually came to light for regulators when Honda was ordered last year to produce all relevant documents about the defect.

Safety experts tell the Times that news of the research raise concerns about Takata’s past actions.

“This fits into a pattern that they have been involved in from the beginning — to deny, delay, defer and blame other people,” Joan Claybrook, a former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a longtime advocate of auto safety, tells the Times. “Takata has gone a long way to try to suppress information about this disaster with these bad airbags, and this is an important piece of it.”.

News of the study comes just a day before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is set to hold yet another meeting to address the slow replacement of defective airbags.

NHTSA will use the meeting to call on other auto parts manufacturers to aid in expediting the replacement parts needed to repair the millions of recalled vehicles.

Source: Honda, Takata Sat On Commissioned Study Showing Chemical Could Cause Airbag Ruptures

On top of the 12 brands already known to be affected by the faulty Takata airbag issues, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be making an announcement in a matter of days, that will confirm the involvement of several more, it seems.

It was reported last month that the US regulators had carried out investigations into several more car brands – including Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Suzuki, Volvo Trucks and Land Rover – under the understanding that Takata had supplied the faulty ammonia-nitrate equipped airbags in question to them.

Mark Rosekind, chief of the NHTSA recently confirmed to Reuters that an announcement will be made very soon, and said that his company “will try to be very specific” about its details. He refused to reveal anything further.

At this point, it isn’t certain if the due announcement will confirm a recall for a new list of affected car brands, or if this purely surrounds the expansion of the ongoing investigations.

In our last report, the NHTSA and Takata were already at the point of beginning their investigations into the seven new brands believed to be equipped with the faulty ammonia-nitrate equipped airbags. In its letters to the brands, read the following:

“Takata has identified your company as having been supplied airbag inflators that contain either its 2004 or 2004L ammonium nitrate-based propellant and that are not currently covered by the Takata DIRs. In connection with the Coordinated Remedy Program proceeding, NHTSA is considering not only whether to issue an administrative order that would coordinate the remedy programs associated with the current Takata recalls, but also whether such an order should include expansion of the current recalls.”

Source: Takata airbag recalls set to expand to more brands

 

[rselva]

This is what I have been warning about in various threads. The safety devices are not safe at all. Even the new Baleno is sure to have 2 Takata airbags with Ammonium Nitrate- as it is the cheapest airbag in production. Unfortunately, in our humid climate and heat, Ammonium Nitrate goes through its 5 phases changing its volume drastically. In the 30 to 32 degree range, it changes from Alpha-rhombic to Beta-rhombic which changes it's volume from -2.9 to +3.6. Obviously such changes results in unpredictable projectile explosion. In India we have poor documentation of accidents so we don't have records of how many injuries and death are due to airbags. Add to this the sensors which fail to detect collisions unless impacted in 'right' way and we have a recipe for a catastrophic safety system which is likely to cause more injury than save the occupants.