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04/28/2024 07:38:23 pm

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Two Million U.S. Vehicles Recalled Over New Air Bag Defect

Fiat 500

(Photo : Reuters/Mario Anzuoni) Fiat 500 cars for sale are pictured at a car dealership at Motor Village in Los Angeles, California on October 13, 2014.

Federal safety regulators ordered three major carmakers to recall more than two million vehicles with defective air bags that deploy even when there is no crash.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Honda Motor, Toyota Motor and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles rolled out the vehicles covered by the recall.

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Safety Administrator Mark Rosekind announced that around 400 cases of air bags inadvertently deployed in the recalled vehicles have been reported. The defects have caused minor injuries to drivers and passengers, but no known fatalities.

The defect has been traced to a malfunctioning chip in the air bag systems. Fixing it requires replacing the whole air bag unit, which included circuits made by contractor TRW Automotive, regulators said.

The safety agency said the recall covered models such as the 2002-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty (around 750,000 vehicles); 2003 Acura MDX and 2003-2004 Honda Odyssey and (370,000) and 2003-2004 Dodge Viper, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Avalon and Toyota Matrix (around 1 million vehicles, not all sold in the U.S.).

Regulators said the covered car models had a component referred to as electronic control units that control the deployment of air bags. All three carmakers got supplies from TRW containing the same control circuit.

The carmakers affected by the recall already issued three similar orders to fix the chip malfunction. But regulators said three dozen vehicles fixed by the recall still had inadvertent deployments of air bags, so a new recall order was issued.

The recall did not have anything to do with millions of vehicles recalled over Takata air bags. State regulators revealed malfunctioning Takata air bag inflators in some vehicles can burst and spread fragments of metal inside the car.

Failures in air bag deployment also stirred controversy last year when General Motors took a long time recalling millions of cars with malfunctioning ignition switches that could turn off power to the built-in safety systems.

Honda announced that that around 374,000 Acura vehicles were covered by the recall in the United States. Honda confirmed that it did receive complaints over the unexpected deployment of air bags after the original repair recall was ordered, but the company pointed out that no crashes due to the defect have been reported so far.

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