Washington: Continental Automotive Systems is recalling 5 million potentially defective airbag control units in Honda, Fiat Chrysler and other vehicles built over a five-year period, according to documents made public on Thursday.
The unit of Germany-based Continental AG told the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the electronic systems built from 2006 through 2010 and used in 5 million vehicles may fail and air bags may not deploy in the event of a crash or may inadvertently deploy without warning.
This is the latest massive U.S. recall related to air bag problems. To date, 14 automakers have recalled about 25 million vehicles for air bag inflators made by Takata Corp that could rupture, emitting potentially deadly metal fragments.
Honda said late Wednesday is recalling 341,000 2008-2010 Accord cars to replace the control units.
On Thursday, Fiat Chrysler said it is recalling 112,000 vehicles for the same issue, including the 2009 Dodge Journey, 2008-2009 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country and 2009 Volkswagen Routan that it had assembled for the German automaker.
Fiat Chrysler has reports of as many as 25 inadvertent air bag deployments.
In October, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz USA unit recalled 126,000 2008-MY 2009 C-Class and 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK-Class vehicles to address the issue.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in August after a complaint of a crash in a 2008 Accord in which the air bags did not deploy.
Honda said it has received 1,575 warranty claims, 83 field reports and 2 confirmed injuries related to the defect. It also said there have been 74 injury allegations related to airbags that did not deploy but those aren't confirmed.
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