There has been a major announcement from the US safety regulators concerning recently discovered flaw that exists in the Takata airbags, warning car owners to replace those as soon as possible. Just to illustrate how big this problem is, officials say there has already been four deaths connected to the faulty airbags and if you are an owner of a car that has this type of airbags installed you should have them replaced immediately.
Although, according to safety regulations, any system that is being installed in a car needs to pass extensive set of trials and tests before being allowed use in a vehicle, it is still unknown how this defective parts could have found their way into more than seven million units. Manufacturers say that airbags were properly tested and they have passed all necessary trials, but the problem became evident recently in models that are used in areas with certain air humidity and temperature. This doesn’t mean that anyone with Takata airbags installed in their car shouldn’t have them checked and replaced if necessary.
As described by the manufacturer the problem is in the chemical propellant which was improperly handled during the manufacturing process and extra humidity and temperature will cause airbags to malfunction. If there is a car accident during which airbags will inflate and be deployed, there is a high risk of them being torn from their brackets carrying with them pieces of glass, plastic and metal shrapnel straight into the head and chest of driver or front seat passenger. In other words,there is no need for a major crash to put the driver or passengers in a life-threatening situation, any circumstances in which airbags are deployed can be considered as a potentially lethal.
At this time there has been recall issued for 7.78 million automobiles in the USA, which include various models from 10 car manufacturers. Those models that are mainly affected were manufactured and sold between year 2000 and 2008, although GM has expanded this recall to some models from last year. Toyota has gone even further by recommending all their model owners to disable their airbags till they can be checked and replaced if necessary. Other car manufacturers and sellers have also called for immediate checks of all models sold after the year 2000.
If you are an owner of the car possibly affected by this fault, you should have already been notified by email about this problem. In case you want to check on your own if your vehicle has this type of potentially dangerous airbag installed, you should use retailer or manufacturer website. For this you will need your vehicle identification number (VIN). In case you find your vehicle at the recall list you should contact the dealer for your brand and immediately schedule an appointment to replace your air bags – according to GM whole process shouldn’t take more than six hours for their models and this type of intervention is completely free for all car owners.
