The largest recall of cars we have seen in Ireland over safety concerns has come to light overnight as some 11 million cars globally need to replace potentially faulty airbag inflators.
Due to the latest safety concerns over potentially faulty airbags made by Japanese parts supplier Takata, Toyota, Nissan and Honda are replacing potentially faulty airbag inflators.
The Toyota recall involves 27,000 Toyotas in Ireland. These are made up of 24,000 Corolla, Yaris and Avensis Verso models built between April 2004 and November 2007 for potential issues with passenger airbags and 3,000 Rav4 and Hi-Lux models built between July 2003 and November 2005 for potential issues with driver airbags.
This is the second recall by Toyota in relation to issues with Takata airbags, the first being in April 2013 when 26,000 Yaris, Corolla and Avensis models were recalled.
Globally, the Toyota recall involves 35 different models including 1.36 million cars in Japan, 1.27 million in Europe, 637,000 in the US, and 18,000 in Canada, the company said in an email.
Toyota says it will replace the affected front driver-side air-bag inflators with newly manufactured parts produced by Daicel Corp. Takata will supply the replacements for front passenger-side air-bag inflators because compatible parts from a different supplier are not available.
Nissan’s recall includes 1.56 million cars globally, including 563,000 cars in Europe, but the company has not given details of which models are affected. Nissan is recalling 15,500 Patrols, Tinos, Almeras, X-Trails, Terrano and D22 trucks in Ireland.
Both Toyota and Nissan said the recalls were for investigative purposes and that no accidents or injuries had been reported. It appears that cars with production dates from March 2003 to November 2007 are subject to the recall.
Honda also announced a major extension to its recall programme over a world airbag alert. At the time of writing, we do not have the details of what number of Honda vehicles and what models are being recalled.
The company confirmed on Thursday it was bringing in for checks almost 4.9 million more cars fitted with the airbags, which have been linked to at least five deaths worldwide.
The investigations revealed that moisture was able to weaken seals in the system, leaving the inflators at risk of erupting with too much force and spraying a car’s interior with shards of metal. High humidity has been identified as being a primary cause of the company’s airbag propellant becoming volatile.
Daihatsu said it was also recalling a number of additional vehicles.
The motor manufacturers have all insisted the recalls are precautionary.
