American Honda is recalling 644 model year 2010 Acura MDX vehicles manufactured between October 7, 2009 and November 14, 2009. A bolt used to attach an interior trim piece to either the driver’s or passenger’s side A-pillar may not have been installed during manufacturing. In the event of a crash resulting in side curtain air bag deployment, the trim piece may not remain properly secured to the A-pillar, increasing the risk of injury to the driver and/or front seat passenger. 10V-002.

Hyundai is recalling 65,226 model year 2006 through 2009 Hyundai Azera vehicles manufactured from September 27, 2005 through October 1, 2008. The wiring harness for the right front seat belt tension sensor may sustain damage after repeated use of the seat belt. If the seat belt tension sensor wiring becomes damaged, it will not communicate with the Passive Occupant Detection System (PODS). This defect may cause recording of Diagnostic Trouble Code B1495 (Belt Tension Sensor Defect) and also possibly B1489 (PODS ECU Defect). If the wire becomes damaged, the air bag will not deploy in the event of a crash requiring front air bag deployment. The seat occupant is at an increased risk of injury should the air bag not deploy as intended.

Hyundai first made changes to its production lines to re-route the wiring harness and to increase the space between the inner sill and lower B-pillar trim. Later, based on replacement of seat belt assemblies from consumer’s cars, Hyundai determined that a safety recall should be conducted. The safety recall is expected to begin during February 2010. Hyundai’s recall campaign number is 094. NHTSA recall number 09V-497.

Audi and Volkswagen Group of America (VW) are recalling 6,054 model year 2009 Audi Q5 passenger vehicles manufactured between November 25, 2008 and June 4, 2009. A left and/or right A-pillar trim cover clip may not have been manufactured correctly, allowing the A-pillar trim to become loose when the sideguard head protection airbags deploy during a crash. If this happens, a loose trim piece could injure the front seat occupants of the vehicle. Although the problem apparently surfaced during crash tests conducted in the spring and summer of 2009, VW/Audi did not notify the government until December 2009. The safety recall is expected to begin during January 2010. 09V-484.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new federal rule that is intended to reduce the risk of being ejected during a rollover accident.  That proposed rule would require car companies to pass testing that evaluates the risk that a person would be ejected out a side window during a rollover crash.  The government expects that most car companies would meet that standard by adding improved side curtain air bags and also potentially by using laminated glazing (layered glass/plastic/glass) similar to what is used in windshields.

Although side curtain air bags are present in many vehicles today, not all of those are triggered during rollover wrecks.  There are several differences between curtain air bags that deploy only in side crashes and curtain air bags that deploy in rollover crashes.  The rollover-triggered air bags obviously require sensors to detect that a rollover is occuring.  Such rollover sensors were available on nearly 100 models by the 2007 model year.

The rollover air bags also have to stay inflated longer: although side impacts may last less than a second, rollovers can last several seconds.  So, rollover air bags need to stay inflated longer.  This is often accomplished by using a colder gas to inflate the air bag, because colder gas does not leak out as quickly.  The rollover air bag fabric is often coated as well, again to make sure the gas does not leak out as quickly.

Additionally, some of today’s side curtain air bags do not extend to the bottom of the windows; this means that some people, particularly small children, can still be ejected even if the curtain air bag is deployed.  NHTSA anticipates that the rollover curtain air bags required to pass the proposed testing would need to extend downward from the roof to cover the entire window.

Finally, in order to keep the bottom of these curtain air bags in position during the entire rollover impact, it is quite possible that the air bag would need to be tethered (or anchored) near the bottom of the window.  Often, this is accomplished through tethers to the bottom of the pillars that support the roof on sides of the vehicle.

NHTSA estimates that the their proposal would add only about $34 per vehicle, compared to the car companies’ current plans.  That is a small price to pay to save someone’s life or to prevent catastrophic injuries that will last a lifetime.

Jaguar Land Rover is recalling 4,001 model year 2010 Range Rover vehicles for failing to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection. These vehicles equipped with Occupant Classification System (OCS) may experience airbag warning lamp illumination on the instrument cluster. The passenger airbag will be disabled when the airbag warning lamp is illuminated as a result of this defect and the Passenger Airbag Warning Disable (PAWD) lamp in the overhead console will also illuminate. Deployment of the passenger airbag may not be achieved in the event of a vehicle crash increasing the risk of injury. The safety recall is expected to begin on or before December 21, 2009. 09V-467.

Volvo is recalling 5,002 model year 2008 Volvo XC70 passenger vehicles. Two deviations have been found in the supplemental restraint system (SRS) control unit software. These deviations may result in a late deployment of the inflatable curtain (IC) and side impact protection system (SIPS) air bags in certain side impact crash situations. In addition, this software error may also cause the ‘SRS Airbag – Service Urgent’ message and SRS warning light to illuminate. Late deployment of the IC and SIPS air bags in certain side impact crash situations could increase the risk of injury to the vehicle occupant. Dealers will perform a software upgrade of the SRS control unit. The recall is expected to begin during November 2007. 07V-500.

Maserati North America, Inc. is recalling 56 model year 2008 Maserati Granturismo vehicles equipped with the advanced passenger seat air bag weight sensor system. A malfunction can occur in the supplemental restraint system (SRS) electronic control unit (ECU) software when the battery is not fully charged. In the event of a crash, the passenger side air bag and passenger seatbelt pre-tensioner may not deploy, increasing the risk of injuries. The recall is expected to begin during December 2007. 07V-550.

Nissan is recalling 16,309 model year 2007 Nissan Versa vehicles. On certain hatchback vehicles, the terminals for the passenger side seat belt tension sensor harness connector may have been damaged during the manufacturing process. This could result in a loss of electrical continuity causing the occupant detection system to become inoperative. If this occurs, the air bag warning light will come on and the passenger side frontal air bag will be suppressed. Dealers will replace the connector for the seat belt tension sensor harness free of charge. The recall began on June 18, 2007. 07V-094.

Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA) is recalling 531 model year 2010 Mitsubishi Endeavor model vehicles manufactured between May 26 and July 28, 2009. The retainer bracket used for the seat-mounted side airbag frames on both the driver and front passenger seats may not have been properly welded. If this condition exists, the front seat-mounted airbags may not deploy correctly in a side impact crash, possibly resulting in injury to the seat occupant. Mitsubishi will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the weld condition of the side airbag retainer bracket on the front passenger seats. If the weld is insufficient, the dealer will replace the seatback assembly free of charge. The safety recall is expected to begin on or about September 22, 2009. 09V-361.

This is yet another quality control problem: defects in a critical safety component escaped the assembly without being noticed.  This is exactly the kind of problem Mitsubishi should have anticipated in the seat assembly process, and should have implemented rigorous quality control measures to ensure seats with this defect were never shipped to customers.

Mitsubishi was notified about this issue by its seat supplier (Bloomington Seating Co.) on August 27, 2009.  Mitsubishi and its seat supplier then inspected vehicles in its possession prior to being shipped to a dealer, and found this defect existed in several of those vehicles.  On September 3, 2009, Mitsubishi issued a “stop sale” telling its dealers not to sell any 2010 Mitsubishi Endeavor vehicles until they had been inspected for this issue.  However, Mitsubishi did not formally notify the government until September 15, 2009 and consumer notification was expected to begin about one week after that.

Many consumers have contacted us and asked whether there was a way to report their airbag problem or defect to the government.  The good news is that there is a way to do that, and it’s relatively easy.  The federal agency that tracks these complaints is the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), specifically their Office of Defects Investigation (ODI).  Click here to go to the specific web page that allows you to file your complaint.

You can file your complaint using different methods, including over the phone, by mail, or over the internet.  Any method will work, but I always recommend submitting it over the internet.  This way, you don’t have to worry about some worker understanding what you are saying over the phone and then summarizing it in a way you did not intend.  Plus, when you submit it over the internet, it gets posted promptly, and you can verify it by checking the complaint file for your vehicle model.  NHTSA removes the personal identifying information to protect your privacy.

Although there is no guarantee that NHTSA will respond to your complaint, they do monitor them.  The more people that complain about a particular issue, the more likely it is to get their attention because that indicates the problem may be widespread rather than an isolated incident.  Do yourself and others a favor: if you have a complaint, file it.  You never know, you may be one of those whose complaint helped forced a car company to conduct a safety recall.  Of course, if an airbag problem caused you or a loved one to suffer serious injuries, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation.