Japan carmakers to recall 3.4m cars airbag defect

[mitsuru]

This was just announced on the BBC News so I thought I'd pass the info on as
almost everybody has more than one vehicle.

Japan's top four carmakers are recalling a total of 3.4 million cars over a defect
in passenger airbags.

Toyota, which is recalling 1.73 million cars, said the vehicles had a defective part
which "could cause the airbag inflator to rupture and deploy the airbag abnormally
in a crash".

Globally, Honda is recalling 1.13 million cars, Nissan almost 500,000 and Mazda
45,000.

In the UK, Toyota, Nissan and Honda are all recalling certain models.

The cars were sold in the years 2000-04, and the firms said the defective part was
supplied by parts maker Takata Corp.

Full article on the BBC News Website
www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22104702

[HoTWire]

Phew,.. for a second I thought I'd have to send my Datsun back,.. and it is in pieces at the moment. It doesn't even ride on airbags.

[tubbs]

Bet thats going to cost telephone numbers for the manufacturer's involved. Figures far bigger than we could ever contemplate.

[Clement]

Only thing popping in my mind when I hear Takata.

[rld14]

Ha ha ha! I hope it costs Toyota a fortune, after what those clowns put me through with my old daily they can go and get stuffed.

[Jizmondo Scrotmondo]

My mate at work drives an 02 Celica. He'll curse word his pants when he hears this as he's a bit of a stress head anyway.

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Looks likely cube is affected which is annoying as current airbag cover is flocked so will have to get new one re-flocked. :/

[SauceDoctor]

Given that the youngest cars affected are now 9 years old, aren't the airbags due for replacement at 10 years anyway? ISTR the VW dealer telling me that in the early 2000s when I bought a couple of company cars for my staff.

[dbizzle]

Apr 12, 2013 12:35:36 GMT SauceDoctor said:

Given that the youngest cars affected are now 9 years old, aren't the airbags due for replacement at 10 years anyway?

Is that true? Do airbags have a shelf-life and need renewing? I've got an eleven year-old VAG (oo-er, etc)...

[EmDee]

*deletes 11 year old spanish vag joke*

There's NO WAY airbags have a shelf life, that'd be silly. If they do then they'd have to keep manufacturing the old ones long after production. That or we'd all better go out and spend £1000s on a full set of new ones so they don't go off in our faces!

Anyway, am I the only one wondering how it took up to 13 years to spot the issue?

[dbizzle]

Apr 12, 2013 13:34:54 GMT EmDee said:

There's NO WAY airbags have a shelf life, that'd be silly. If they do then they'd have to keep manufacturing the old ones long after production.

Yeah, that's what I'd always assumed. The huge cost of replacing them would basically write off every ten year-old car.

Apr 12, 2013 13:34:54 GMT EmDee said:

Anyway, am I the only one wondering how it took up to 13 years to spot the issue?

It is a concern isn't it?!

[nofrills]

I read thats what the car giants want.... and if that ever becomes MOT testable then alot of 10 year old cars will be scrapped forcing more new cars onto the road so we get tied in and cars become throw away items :-(

[Hirst]

Airbags do have a shelf life as their functionality is based around chemical reaction, said chemicals will degrade over time - in theory. In practice, nobody seems to agree on what the shelf life is as they haven't really been in widespread use for long enough to really say and it seems that environmental conditions have as much to do with it as age. Most manufacturers reckon about 10-15 years but they're likely to be erring on the side of caution, might be centuries in reality, who knows?

Ultimately though, degradation doesn't mean they're going to blow up in your face or anything like that - worst case scenario is that they won't fire. You can't really test the chemical reaction without it activating, so if you were really bothered for some reason outright replacement would be the only way. I doubt it'll ever become an MOT item though, they're a sealed unit so there isn't a realistic way of checking it unless they they plan on adding a "drive into a big wall" segment to the test.

[PistonBroker]

Apr 13, 2013 0:37:05 GMT Hirst said:

unless they they plan on adding a "drive into a big wall" segment to the test.

'Er indoors followed me to the MOT place the other week. Now I understand what part of the test she was going for in their tight car park . . . :-p

She has an '04 CRV so must look into whether it's affected. It's been recalled to Honda that many times in the 2 years we've had it that it won't surprise me!

Only thing that got to me was our local news telling us 01-03 CRVs were affected and then showing a pic of an '07 onwards CRV . . . ::-)

[omega]

damm
i thought they were recalling old bags not air bags
the mrs was getting worried!

[datsundrew]

I'm sure it's a huge fuss as usual, ok the manufacturer will want to void liability for injury or death, but I would think that the actual risk is low. So say 10% don't go off in a prang, how many get pranged? Supposing it was side impact......could it have gone off, should it. If it were a month newer it may have been fitted with side air bags, maybe, maybe, what.... No n cap? Ooooooh, I'm scared now :-0