BMW Recalls 1.6 Million Cars Over Defective Takata Air Bag Part
BMW is recalling about 1.6 million 3 Series cars from the 2000-6 model years, including about 574,000 in the United States, over a concern that the front-seat passenger could be injured by metal shards from a deploying air bag in a crash, the company said Wednesday.
The component - the air bag inflator - was made by the troubled Takata Corporation, which has been responsible for more than 10 million vehicles being recalled worldwide over the last few years by major automakers, including Toyota, Honda and Subaru.
BMW said that the explosive propellant inside the inflator case was not prepared properly and could produce too much power when air bags deploy. The excess force can rupture the inflator's metal case, sending fragments into the passenger compartment. On the passenger side, the fragments are likely to first go up toward the windshield or down toward the front-seat passenger's feet.
All the BMWs are being recalled for a problem with the passenger-side air bag, although the automaker said it was not aware of any inflators rupturing on its vehicles.
Takata has also had trouble with the driver-side air bag. Honda acknowledged that two drivers were killed in the United States when they were hit by inflator-casing shards.
The BMW recall announced Wednesday is an expansion of a 42,000-vehicle recall over the inflators that the automaker issued in May 2013 for the 3 Series from the 2002-3 model years. It was part of a worldwide recall of about 3.3 million vehicles by Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda, and included about 1.7 million vehicles in the United States.
BMW said in a statement that its most recent recall was 'a voluntary precautionary measure.' However, once an automaker is aware of a safety problem it must within five business days inform the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of its plan for a recall or face a civil penalty.
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