BMW has recently issued a recall of over 230,000 of its vehicles due to being possibly fitted with faulty Takata air bags. This decision was made after confirming that some of its vehicles may have been installed with the airbags as replacements after getting into accidents.
Repaired BMWs may have been installed with Takata air bags. The German car manufacturer initially installed air bags manufactured by German parts supplier Petri in affected vehicles. Petri was purchased by Takata back in 2000 which would mean that deployed Petri air bags would have been replaced by ones manufactured by Takata.
Rebecca Kiehne, a spokeswoman for the company, has said that airbags in need of replacing would be initially replaced with Takata PSDI-4 inflators. Faulty Takata air bags can explode upon deployment spewing dangerous debris to passengers. The flaw has already been linked to 17 known deaths and over 100 injuries which have prompted the largest global automotive recall known.
According to Michael Brooks, acting director of Washington-based advocacy group Center for Auto Saftey, other car manufacturers could be at risk of faulty Takata inflators installed in their vehicles. He has urged the National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration (NHTSA) to look into the matter.
Brooks has stated that "NHTSA should request information from all manufacturers that have Petri air bags, at a minimum." He further added, "If the Takata air bags have been replacing Petri airbags, they have to figure out the entire population of affected vehicles and have them inspected and replaced if necessary." Messages left with the NHTSA regarding the matter were not immediately responded to.
BMW's recently issued recall covers models such as the 2001 5 Series sedan and 2001-2002 X5. It brings the total number of affected vehicles to 1,568,247.
The German car manufacturer will start notifying owners of affected vehicles this coming March 15, 2017. Dealerships will replace airbags of vehicles found to have Takata air bags installed in them.
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