U.S. federal safety regulators confirmed on Saturday that three major automakers will call back approximately 2.1 million older vehicles to repair defects that could cause air bags to deploy at inappropriate times.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced said that affected vehicles were made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Honda Motor, and Toyota Motor. These automakers had issued three previous recalls to repair chip issues.
The recall involves defective chips in air bag systems and the fix involves repairing the entire air bag module, including specific circuits manufactured by parts maker TRW Automotive Holdings, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said, according to Reuters.
About 400 cases have been reported to NHTSA about inadvertent air bag deployments, Rosekind said. Known incidents have caused minor injuries, but no deaths have been reported yet.
The recall is not related to vehicles being recalled by Takata Corp air bags. Safety regulators have said defective Takata air bag inflators in select vehicles can rupture and spray metal fragments inside vehicles.
Air bag issues were also in the middle of a big controversy last year involving General Motor's delay in recalling millions of vehicles with defective ignition switches that could cut off power to safety systems unexpectedly.
Honda confirmed Saturday that nearly 374,000 Honda and Acura vehicles are affected in the U.S.
"Honda has received a small number of complaints of inadvertent airbag deployment in these vehicles after the original recall repair was completed," Honda said in a press statement. "No crashes have been reported to Honda related to this issue."
The NHTSA said the chance of being involved in a crash in which an air bag could prevent a serious injury or death is greater than the risk of serious injury from an inadvertent air bag deployment.
Models affected by the recall include: 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty and 2002-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees (about 750,000 vehicles); 2003-2004 Honda Odyssey and 2003 Acura MDX (about 370,000 vehicles) and 2003-2004 Pontiac Vibe; Dodge Viper; and Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, and Toyota Avalon (nearly 1 million vehicles, though not all of them were sold in the United States.)
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