Chrysler is conducting a safety improvement campaign involving 312,442 model year 2005-2006 Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country vehicles originally sold in or currently registered in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Alaska and the District of Columbia.

The front crash sensors may crack under certain environmental conditions and allow water to enter into the sensor. This can cause the sensor to become inoperative and illuminate the airbag warning light. The crash sensor was supplied by Robert Bosch Corporation in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This recall demonstrates yet another problem Chrysler had with its up-front crash sensors, continuing a pattern from prior defective air bag sensors.

These sensors were added to enhance the performance of the airbag system in certain frontal crashes. If the front crash sensors become inoperative, the driver is immediately alerted by illumination of the airbag warning light and the vehicle should be promptly serviced. Until the vehicle is repaired, the airbags may not provide the enhanced protection in the event of a crash. Chrysler will replace the front airbag sensors with a new design. This service will be performed free of charge. The safety improvement campaign will begin during June 2010. Chrysler’s campaign number is J38. 10V-008.

Honda is recalling 379,000 model year 2001-2002 Honda Accord 2 and 4-door, model year 2001-2003 Honda Civic 4-door, model year 2001-2002 Honda Civic 2-door, model year 2002-Honda CRV, model year 2002 Honda Odyssey, model year 2003 Honda Pilot, model year 2002-2003 Acura 3.2TL and model year 2003 Acura 3.2CL passenger vehicles. The driver’s airbag inflator could produce excessive internal pressure. If an affected airbag deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture. Metal fragments could pass through the airbag cushion material possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants. The safety recall is expected to begin on or before February 25, 2010. 10V-041.

Chrysler is recalling 2,990 model year 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee passenger vehicles (designated by Chrysler as WK-Body vehicles) manufactured from October 22 through November 12, 2009. The passenger side airbag may not properly deploy through the instrument panel tear seam. The airbag may not properly protect the passenger in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury. The campaign is expected to begin in December 2009. 09V-454

The supplier who manufactured the part was Masonico LLC in Fraser, Michigan. A quality control (continuing conformance test) at Masonico on November 11, 2009 revealed an improper deployment of the passenger air bag. The very next day, additional testing revealed that the passenger air bag was not deploying properly during both cold-temperature and ambient-temperature. That caused the assembly plant (Chrysler’s Jefferson North Assembly Plant) to stop production. Although it was determined that defective parts may have been installed in vehicles that were built as early as October 22, 2009, their failure to detect the defective parts for nearly three weeks raises serious questions about the effectiveness of their quality control program.

Changes to certain welds and the way the air bag door was scored were implemented. The recall fix involves having the instrument panel top cover replaced.

Hyundai Motor Company is recalling 128,300 model year 2005-2007 Hyundai Tucson vehicles. On certain sport utility vehicles, during static air bag deployment testing conducted by NHTSA using fifth percentile female dummies indicated if a small statured adult driver, not wearing a seat belt, is involved in a frontal or near frontal crash, deployment of the driver air bag may result in an insufficient margin of compliance as measured by the test dummy used in the NHTSA test. This can cause increased risk of injury to the driver under certain crash conditions. Dealers will replace the driver air bag module. The recall began on January 29, 2007, and will be conducted through six mailings. 06V-445.

Honda is recalling model year 2001 Honda Civic and Honda Accord vehicles. The driver’s airbag inflator could produce excessive internal pressure. If an affected airbag deploys, the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture. Metal fragments could pass through the air bag cushion material possibly causing injury to vehicle occupants.

Honda was aware of this defect since at least June 2007, but did not start a program to collect suspect parts till more than a half-year later. By November 2008, Honda had determined that a safety defect existed in the 2001 Honda Accord and Honda Civic driver air bags and notified the US government.

However, by June of 2009, Honda had received at least two additional reports of driver air bags with unusual deployment. Accordingly, Honda notified the government that it was expanding the recall, which was assigned a new recall number: 09V-259. However, Honda did not determine what number of vehicles was affected by the expanded scope, nor what percentage of affected vehicles have the safety defect.

If Honda doesn’t know what specific vehicles actually contain the defect, how can you as a consumer be expected to know? This kind of incident really makes you wonder about their quality control, as well as the quality control procedures of their air bag supplier.

BMW is recalling model year 2008 BMW 1-series and BMW 3- series passenger cars. Incorrect crimp connectors may have been used on the side air bag and belt tensioner wiring. As a result, sufficient contact between the crimp connectors and the corresponding plug may not occur, which could lead to an increase in the electrical resistance of that connection.

If that happens, it is possible for the side air bag and/or the safety belt tensioner not to deploy and not be able to properly protect an occupant, increasing the risk of injuries. 09V-257.

Daimler Chrysler is recalling 270,958 model year 2005 Chrysler Town and Country and 2005 Dodge Caravan minivans originally sold in or currently registered in the 27 states plus the District of Columbia that use greater amounts of salt for winter road deicing.

The up-front (UF) air bag sensors that contain brass bushings installed in these vehicles may corrode and crack allowing water to enter the sensor. These sensors provide enhanced air bag performance in certain types of frontal crashes. In one of these crashes, with one or both of the vehicle’s UF sensors inoperative, the occupants will not benefit from the enhanced air bag protection that these sensors would provide.

For vehicles registered in the recall states, dealers will replace the original UF air bag sensors with ones with greater corrosion resistance. Vehicles registered in other states will obtain a lifetime free replacement of any UF sensor that fails. The campaign is expected to begin during July 2007.

DaimlerChrysler has not decided that this is a defect related to motor vehicle safety. However, it has informed NHTSA that it will provide the modifications described above. This recall was the subject of a Preliminary Evaluation, PE06-003, conducted by the Office of Defects Investigation. 07V-192.

In my opinion, Chrysler’s claim that the acknowledged cracking and leakage into its front air bag sensors is not a safety defect is ridiculous.  Surely, their engineers did not design those sensor to crack and leak intentionally.  And, if the sensors were not needed, why were they used in the first place?  To me, this sounds like a company trying to avoid responsibility for its defective products.

Bentley Motors Ltd. (Bentley) is recalling 4 model year 2004-2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur and 2004-2006 Bentley Continental GT vehicles. The replacement trimmed covers have been manufactured with tethers of an incorrect length. In the event of a crash, this could result in damage to the air bag itself during deployment, increasing the risk of injuries. The recall is expected to begin on or about February 22, 2008. 08V-072.

This just goes to show that even very expensive vehicles can suffer from serious safety defects arising from poor quality.

Honda is recalling 34,300 model year 2007-2008 Honda Fit vehicles originally sold in or currently registered in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

The wire harness for the occupant detection system (ODS) and the occupant position detection system (OPDS) is routed underneath the carpet on the driver’s side floorboard. In areas where road salt is used, salt from the snow on the driver’s shoes will melt and may penetrate the carpet and leak into the wire harness. If the harness is exposed to salt brine, corrosion may occur and the wire may break causing the SRS indicator light to illuminate.

A failure of the ODS and OPDS may not detect the presence of a child seat or an out-of-position passenger and deployment of both the front seat passenger’s frontal and side air bags will not be suppressed. In the event of a crash, a deploying front passenger air bag or front passenger’s side air bag will increase the risk of injury to small or out-of-position occupants.

Dealers will inspect and replace the wire harness. The recall is expected to begin during January 2008. 07V-549.

Mazda is recalling 213,000 model year 1995-1996 Mazda MX-6 and 1995-1997 Mazda 626 vehicles.  These vehicles can experience air bag deployments in minor undercarriage impacts. Unexpected air bag deployment can result in occupant injury.

Dealers will reprogram the SAS unit to reduce the probability of unnecessary deployments in low speed undercarriage impacts. Owner notification was expected to begin during January 1999. 98V-249.

This safety defect recall affecting many Mazda vehicles shows two problems that occur fairly frequently among many car companies.  First is the over-reliance on electronic single-point sensors.  These sensors are essentially mini-computers that are located in the passenger cabin, far away from the front crush zone that is deformed in a frontal crash.  Because they are so far away, they are often designed with a hair-trigger, in order to be able to sense the frontal crash from so far back in the car.  This hair-trigger causes these sensors to mistakenly predict a severe crash is taking place, when in actuality there is no such severe crash.  It is thus not surprising this type of electronic single-point sensor can result in unwarranted and unjustified airbag deployments, which can themselves cause injury to consumers.

Often, car companies decided to use electronic single-point crash safety sensors to save money.  For example, the recall above affected the 1995 through 1997 model years of the Mazda 626, which used the electronic single-point sensor.  However, the 1994 model year was not affected by the recall.  This is because the 1994 model year used three separate airbag sensors located in the front of the car. 

Mazda 626 Airbag Crash Sensor Changes

Because they were in the front crush zone, they did not need to be designed with a hair-trigger, and were thus less vulnerable to mis-judging minor impacts.  They were also much less likely to deploy the airbags in undercarriage impacts.  Using the single electronic sensor was cheaper than using the three separate sensors in the front of the car.  A company should never put profits ahead of safety.

The second problem is that many car companies have taken shortcuts in designing and developing their airbag systems.  Rather than testing their air bag sensor for all reasonably foreseeable types of crashes, they cut corners.  This elimination of certain tests can result in airbag deployment in such crashes, even when such deployment should not occur.  Simply put, pinching pennies during the design and development process can result in severe injuries to consumers.  Unexpected deployments can also actually cause a crash when they unexpectedly startle a consumer.