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.

Toyota is recalling 1,309 certain model year 2010 Toyota Corolla vehicles for failing to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, “Occupant Crash Protection.” The air bag label installed on the driver side sun visor can separate from the surface of the visor. This does not meet the standard requirements. The recall is expected to begin on or before October 15, 2009. 09V-332.

Though some might think this is not that important because it’s “just a label”, I believe it is important in two ways. First, the law requires the air bag label to be there for a reason – to communicate important safety information to consumers. Second, this is just the latest in a series of quality setbacks for Toyota. Car companies routinely install this label on millions of vehicles a year without any such problems. If Toyota’s quality department can’t even ensure their air bag labels stick, can you really trust them to ensure the highly technical aspects of their air bag systems are working appropriately??

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.

Volkswagen (VW) is recalling 18,500 model year 2009 VW Routan vehicles for failing to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208, “Occupant Crash Protection.” The owner’s manual was printed without the FMVSS No. 208 required information explaining that no objects should be placed over or near the air bag on the instrument panel. Any such objects could cause injury to the vehicle’s occupants in the event of a crash severe enough to cause the air bag to inflate. The recall is expected to begin on or before July 31, 2009. 09V-244.

Land Rover is recalling 37,142 model year 2005-2006 Land Rover LR3 and Land Rover Range Rover Sport vehicles. Relative motion between the steering wheel hub and/or the steering column cowl with the clockspring, which includes the driver side air bag circuitry, could result in fracturing of the air bag wiring connection.

If an air bag wire fractures, the SRS warning light will illuminate on the instrument cluster. The SRS warning light indicates to the driver that there is a concern with the SRS system in the vehicle and that immediate repair is necessary. If the SRS warning light is ignored and a vehicle crash of sufficient severity to command deployment of the driver’s air bag occurs, the air bag module may not deploy in the intended manner.

The condition may result in the deployment of only one stage of the dual stage driver’s air bag or the air bag may not deploy at all increasing the risk of serious injuries to the driver. The recall is expected to begin on or about July 21, 2008. 08V-248.