Toyota Recalls 247,000 Cars because of Airbag

Toyota Recall about airbag issues is to be taken seriously by car owners.

Toyota announced a safety recall of approximately 247,000 Toyota Corolla, Matrix, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus SC vehicles produced from 2001 to 2004 and equipped with front passenger airbag inflators supplied by Takata Corporation. This announcement intensifies Toyota’s efforts to reach customers and remedy previously recalled vehicles, and a small number of newly included vehicles, in certain geographic areas that appear to warrant immediate action, based on testing by the supplier.

The new initiative targets cars in consistently high absolute humidity areas, including southern Florida, along the Gulf Coast, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, U.S Virgin Islands, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa. In April 2013 and June 2014, Toyota announced recalls for affected vehicles.  Separately, in cooperation with NHTSA and Takata to investigate incidents of ruptured inflators, Toyota recovered inflators from recalled vehicles from areas in South Florida for evaluation by Takata.

Takata provided data to Toyota indicating that a number of the returned inflators performed improperly during component testing. The cause of the potential for ruptured inflators and the influence of high absolute humidity are under investigation.  To date, Toyota has received no reports of injuries or fatalities related to this condition.                 

Beginning this week, all known owners of the affected Toyota and Lexus vehicles will be notified by first class mail to return their vehicles to a Toyota or Lexus dealer.  The dealer will replace the front passenger airbag inflator with a newly manufactured one.  If a replacement part is not available at the time of vehicle service, the dealer will follow procedures to temporarily disable the front passenger airbag assembly. In addition, the dealer will install a glove box hang tag informing occupants that the front passenger seat should not be occupied until the inflator assembly is replaced and the airbag is fully functional. Check on www.toyota.com/recall if you car is affected.

The NHTSA thinks that this recall is very important and urges car owners to take immediate action. It is not only Toyota that is affected. Other car brands include Honda, BMW, Mazda, Nissan, and GM. Check this NHTSA page if your car is affected.