– By Marc Sibbald –
In case you missed it, there’s a compulsory recall on more than 2.3 million vehicles in Australia for faulty airbags. According to the ACCC press release in December 2017 there has already been one death in Australia due to the faulty airbags.
On the 28th February Assistant Minister to the Treasurer The Hon. Michael Sukkar issued a release making the recall compulsory due to the significant risk to Australian drivers.
This is the first compulsory recall of vehicles in Australia. The global recall of Takata airbag inflators is the largest in automotive history, affecting some 100 million vehicles worldwide.
The government press release stated that the compulsory recall will capture approximately 2.3 million vehicles that still have a defective airbag that needs replacement. This includes vehicles made by Ford, GM Holden, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda. This is in addition to existing voluntary recalls by BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, GMC, Honda, Jeep, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volvo and Hino Trucks.
With such a long list of affected manufacturers Fleet Auto News was pleased when it saw a copy of an internal memo from Phil Murray, Head of Aftersales at Kia, stating that no Kia vehicles are affected because they are not fitted with Takata airbags. This should make Kia fleet and novated customers a little happier with their purchase.
The compulsory recall places requirements on vehicle manufacturers, dealers, importers and other suppliers to ensure that dangerous Takata airbags are located and replaced as quickly as possible. Absolute priority will be given to replacing alpha airbags, which pose an immediate and critical safety risk.
Of particular concern are the cars on Australian roads known to contain the most dangerous types of faulty airbags, called ‘alpha’ airbags. Takata alpha airbags have a manufacturing flaw, as they were not produced according to design standards and do not deploy as intended. These airbags pose the most severe risk of misdeploying during a car accident.
Though it seems there are a more problems with airbags than people realise. Here are a list of some other recalls on the ACCC website when I searched for ‘Airbag’ – They are all from February 2018!
| Vehicle | Problem |
| 2013 (JK) Jeep Wrangler
2013 (LX) Chrysler 300, 300c |
Passenger’s airbag inflator: If an affected vehicle is involved in an accident and the airbag goes off, the airbag inflator may rupture. |
| Audi Q3 | On affected vehicles, the passenger airbag may not be filled with the required volume of gas. This has occurred due to a production fault leading to a defective weld joint on the gas generator for the airbag. |
| Mercedes-Benz
“A”, “B”, “C”, “E”, “GLA”, “CLA” and “GLC” model passenger cars |
The driver airbag could be triggered without obvious cause. This is due to electrostatic discharge if the steering column is not sufficiently grounded and the steering column switch module is already damaged or faulty. An airbag warning message will alert the driver via the instrument cluster display as well as a red airbag indicator lamp that the steering column module is damaged or faulty. |
| BMW E70 X5 & BMW E71 X6 | Front passenger airbag inflator: If an affected vehicle is involved in an accident and the airbag goes off, the airbag inflator may rupture. |
| Lexus NX200t, NX300h, RX200t, RX350 & RX450h | Affected vehicles are equipped with an airbag system that uses pressure sensors and/or G sensors to detect impact to the vehicle. There is a possibility that the insulation layers of the Integrated Circuit (IC) chip within the airbag system could peel over time, creating an open circuit in the IC chip. |
| Toyota Prius ZVW50 Toyota Corolla Sedan ZRE172 Toyota Fortuner GUN156 Toyota Hilux GGN120, GGN125, GUN122, GUN123, GUN125, GUN126, GUN136 & TGN121 |
Affected vehicles are equipped with an airbag system that uses pressure sensors and/or G sensors to detect impact to the vehicle. There is a possibility that the insulation layers of the Integrated Circuit (IC) chip within the airbag system could peel over time, creating an open circuit in the IC chip. |
