Toyota expands airbag recall to 2.27M vehicles worldwide

Wed, 11 Jun 2014

Was your Toyota inspected under the company's recall campaign for faulty airbag inflators last year? You might have another trip ahead to have it repaired again. The automotive giant says that it found "the involved serial numbers provided by the supplier were incomplete, and did not include all of the potentially involved inflators," according to its official announcement. That means more replacements are needed.

Toyota's April 2013 inflator recall covered the Corolla, Matrix and Tundra from the 2003 and 2004 model years, the Sequoia from 2002 to 2004 and the Lexus SC 430 from 2002 to 2004. At the time, the company said it would need to inspect about 510,000 vehicles in the US but only expected to replace around 170,000 inflators.

However, the latest announcement increases that figure to about 766,300 vehicles in the US. Toyota spokesperson Cindy Knight told Autoblog that the new amount is the combination of owners who need to have their vehicle looked at again and those who didn't come in for the initial recall. The company learned about the problem when Takata, the supplier, provided it with an improved list of the faulty part's serial numbers. According to The Detroit News, the latest recall affects about 2.27 million vehicles from them worldwide. Knight said owners would receive notification of the problem around the end of the month but repairs would come in phases because the automaker doesn't have all of the necessary parts at the moment.

The original problem occurred because the front passenger airbag inflator from Takata could have an improper propellant that could cause it to burst in an accident and not allow the airbag to deploy properly. Toyota inspected all the vehicles listed but only changed the inflators with specific serial numbers. Now, it's replacing them all.

This wasn't just a problem for Toyota, though. Honda, Nissan and Mazda also used the faulty inflators and issued recalls at the same time. Autoblog has contacted the other Japanese automakers about whether similar campaigns are necessary for them. We will update this story, if we hear back from them. Scroll down to read Toyota's announcement.

Toyota Renotifies Owners of Certain Previously Recalled Vehicles

June 11, 2014
TORRANCE, Calif., June 11, 2014 – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. today announced that it will renotify owners of certain vehicles involved in an April 2013 safety recall for the front passenger airbag inflators installed in several models. Toyota is modifying the remedy procedure.

The 2013 recall remedy involved inspection of the front passenger air bag, and if equipped with an affected inflator, the inflator would be replaced with a newly manufactured one at no charge to the owner.

Toyota has determined that the involved serial numbers provided by the supplier were incomplete, and did not include all of the potentially involved inflators.

For vehicles which were inspected and did not receive a replacement inflator, Toyota will re-notify the owners and replace the inflator with a new one.

For vehicles which have not received the 2013 recall remedy previously, Toyota is changing the remedy from "inspect and replace the inflator if it is involved" to "replace the inflator with a new one.".

The involved vehicles were equipped with front passenger airbag inflators which could have been assembled with improperly manufactured propellant. Improperly manufactured propellant could cause the inflator to rupture and the front passenger airbag to deploy abnormally in the event of a crash.

Approximately 766,300 vehicles in the US were covered by the 2013 recall, including vehicles that were previously inspected and already received a replacement inflator. This recall involves certain Model Year 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla, Corolla Matrix, and Tundra; certain Model Year 2002-2004 Sequoia; and certain Model Year 2002-2004 Lexus SC 430 coupes.

Owners of vehicles subject to this safety recall will receive an owner notification letter by first class mail.

Detailed information is available to customers at www.toyota.com/recall, the Toyota Customer Experience at 1 800-331-4331, www.lexus.com/recall and Lexus Customer Satisfaction (1 800-255-3987).

By Chris Bruce