The degraded propellant ignites too quickly, producing excess pressure that causes the inflator to rupture – sending metal shards into the passenger cabin that can lead to serious injury or death.
The National Highway Traffic Safety – aka NHTSA – has forced Takata to admit finally that its airbag inflators are defective devices that send shrapnel into a vehicle’s interior.
Takata fiercely resisted an admission that there was a safety defect previously, but will now conduct a national recall of driver- and passenger-side inflators. This expands the number of vehicles to be recalled for defective Takata inflators to nearly 34 million.
It is difficult to see how the airbag business at Takata will survive as bankruptcy appears to be likely since it supplied 11 automakers.
The Takata inflators were made with a propellant that can degrade over time and has led to ruptures that have been blamed for at least six deaths worldwide. This expands the number of vehicles to be recalled for defective Takata inflators to nearly 34 million.
NHTSA issued a Consent Order to Takata that forces the company to cooperate in all future regulatory actions that NHTSA undertakes in its ongoing investigation and oversight of Takata.
In addition, NHTSA announced its intent to begin a formal legal process to organize and prioritize the replacement of defective Takata inflators under the agency’s legal authority.
The Department of Transportation has established a new website, www.SaferCar.gov/RecallsSpotlight to provide regular updates on the status of this and other recalls and of NHTSA’s investigation.
Testing and investigation by Takata, auto manufacturers, and independent researchers have not yet established a definitive root cause of the inflator malfunctions. NHTSA’s analysis of test results and engineering reports from independent organizations points to moisture infiltrating the defective inflators over extended periods as a factor.
Moisture causes changes in the structure of the chemical propellant – apparently a unique mixture developed by Takata – that ignites when an airbag deploys. The degraded propellant ignites too quickly, producing excess pressure that causes the inflator to rupture and sending metal shards into the passenger cabin that can lead to serious injury or death.
The agency has held informal discussions with automakers and parts suppliers in an effort to coordinate one of the largest and most complex product recalls in history. NHTSA also plans to issue notice of intent to open a proceeding that would coordinate the remedy program for Takata inflators in order to address the highest risks quickly.
From NHTSA: The Takata air bag recall is one of the largest and most complex product recalls in history. All of the vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, affected by the Takata recall are now loaded into our VIN Lookup Tool on our website, SaferCar.gov. The direct link is https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/