Author Topic: Airbag recall  (Read 4702 times)

RWD

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Airbag recall
« on: October 22, 2014, 09:21:16 AM »
There are quite a few vehicles (over 6 million) affected by the Takata airbag recall.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2014/10/21/nhtsa-takata-recall-revised-airbags/17696931/
http://jalopnik.com/get-your-airbags-fixed-now-if-you-own-one-of-these-cars-1648580104

I suspect quite a few cars from that list are owned by Mustachians. This is a very serious recall. GM is even recommending not letting a passenger sit in the front seat until your car is fixed:
http://jalopnik.com/gm-tells-consumers-to-stop-letting-people-ride-in-some-1649281546

ketchup

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2014, 09:38:09 AM »
Phew, luckily my cars are too old to be on that list.  Scary stuff.

BlueMR2

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2014, 10:10:43 AM »
Same here, nothing that young in our driveway.  :-)

At first I was concerned that they were randomly blowing up, but it seems they fire at appropriate times, just they explode instead of a controlled release.  So, I wouldn't be in danger anyways.  Mine are all disabled (I occasionally take my cars to the local road courses and track regulations are that airbags must be disabled as they're a hazard to rescue crews).

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2014, 10:27:09 AM »
Same here, nothing that young in our driveway.  :-)

At first I was concerned that they were randomly blowing up, but it seems they fire at appropriate times, just they explode instead of a controlled release.  So, I wouldn't be in danger anyways.  Mine are all disabled (I occasionally take my cars to the local road courses and track regulations are that airbags must be disabled as they're a hazard to rescue crews).

I believe the issue is that they can explode and fire metal shrapnel into your face and neck.

arebelspy

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2014, 10:47:22 AM »
Thanks for the heads up!
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RWD

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2014, 10:50:33 AM »
Same here, nothing that young in our driveway.  :-)

At first I was concerned that they were randomly blowing up, but it seems they fire at appropriate times, just they explode instead of a controlled release.  So, I wouldn't be in danger anyways.  Mine are all disabled (I occasionally take my cars to the local road courses and track regulations are that airbags must be disabled as they're a hazard to rescue crews).

I believe the issue is that they can explode and fire metal shrapnel into your face and neck.

Yes, but what he's saying is that it only happens when the airbag is triggered to go off anyway. So if you have disabled your airbags you wouldn't be affected.


Thanks for the heads up!

You're welcome. We own one car (2005 Subaru Legacy) that may be affected if the build date is early enough. It's making me anxious just thinking about my wife driving it today.

arebelspy

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2014, 11:00:21 AM »
Thanks for the heads up!

You're welcome. We own one car (2005 Subaru Legacy) that may be affected if the build date is early enough. It's making me anxious just thinking about my wife driving it today.

We have an 04 Honda Civic that sounds like it's affected, but I have no anxiety around it.

We drove it fine for the last decade.  Approximately 3,700 days. Why would I suddenly worry about it being an issue on this one day?

And if it was that big of an issue that it was happening all the time, we'd heard about it years ago.

So I'll go get it fixed, absolutely, but stress about it being an actual viable danger in the meantime?  Heh, no.  The stress is probably more a danger to your health than the airbag.
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RWD

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2014, 11:07:10 AM »
Thanks for the heads up!

You're welcome. We own one car (2005 Subaru Legacy) that may be affected if the build date is early enough. It's making me anxious just thinking about my wife driving it today.

We have an 04 Honda Civic that sounds like it's affected, but I have no anxiety around it.

We drove it fine for the last decade.  Approximately 3,700 days. Why would I suddenly worry about it being an issue on this one day?

And if it was that big of an issue that it was happening all the time, we'd heard about it years ago.

So I'll go get it fixed, absolutely, but stress about it being an actual viable danger in the meantime?  Heh, no.  The stress is probably more a danger to your health than the airbag.

I think it's just the not knowing. I'll feel better either way once I get home tonight and look at the build date.

The explosive failure of these airbags didn't show up years ago because it's an exposure to the elements over time thing. It sounds like it is primarily affecting cars in humid environments.

Dee18

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2014, 01:54:46 PM »
I posted this elsewhere:  I went to my Honda dealer today, after checking my VIN online, and made an appointment to have this fixed tomorrow.  Even though the official website said "wait until you receive a letter from us to schedule the repair," I was concerned about my teen driving with this potential hazard.  I was delighted the dealer said they could fix it right away.

arebelspy

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2014, 02:37:34 PM »
I posted this elsewhere:  I went to my Honda dealer today, after checking my VIN online, and made an appointment to have this fixed tomorrow.  Even though the official website said "wait until you receive a letter from us to schedule the repair," I was concerned about my teen driving with this potential hazard.  I was delighted the dealer said they could fix it right away.

So my wife called the Honda dealer earlier after I emailed her after reading this thread, they told her we should get a letter in a few days, and that they're (the dealership) still waiting on word from Honda about what to do about it, and that they aren't prepared to do anything yet and we should just sit tight.
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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2014, 05:52:45 AM »
Ugh yes, I got the letter and booked the Xtrail in. Of course,  as anticipated there is a huge backlog of these dodgy airbag rectification orders at the Nissan dealer and they can only get 6 airbags a day for safety reasons because apparently they are filled with gas and cannot be flown or they blow up. Which is a bit of a problem if you live on an island. So my turn should come in a couple of weeks to get the blasted things replaced.

Not too worried... the car has survived the last 12 years without blowing up so what's another two weeks? My driving is more of a risk...

RWD

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2014, 08:52:00 AM »
My car's situation is rather ambiguous... It falls within the build dates specified, but Subaru's website does not list the recall for my VIN. I also called the local dealership and they said the same thing. I'm suspecting it's because Subaru is calling this a "Parts Collection Campaign" instead of a recall and is only replacing airbags on cars in (or previously registered in) humid environments (Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands).
Quote
Subaru has not made a determination that a safety defect exists in these vehicles and in fact is not aware of any incidents involving ruptured inflators on the models that will be affected by this parts collection campaign. Nevertheless, we have elected to initiate this campaign in a good faith effort to cooperate with NHTSA and in support of the Supplier’s (TK Holdings, Inc./Takata) ongoing investigation of the risk of failure of the passenger airbag inflators installed on the vehicles listed above that are currently or have ever been registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Subaru reference number for this regional parts collection campaign is WQM-49.

There is also a brake line corrosion recall for the Legacy that isn't listed for my VIN, probably because they are only recalling salt-belt state cars... I wish they would recall regardless of location, since cars can always be relocated in the future. This whole thing just makes me feel uneasy.

I'm not particularly worried about the airbags in my Legacy since I don't live in a humid environment. Reading the parts collection campaign it sounds like they haven't determined yet whether the particular airbags in Subarus are defective. Presumably they'll issue a full recall if they find problems. I hope...
« Last Edit: August 17, 2017, 08:19:10 AM by RWD »

dragoncar

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2014, 03:40:33 PM »

And if it was that big of an issue that it was happening all the time, we'd heard about it years ago.


The problem is that it shows up only when you are in an accident and probably already somewhat injured.  So at first emergency crews just thought .. huh these injuries look slightly worse than I'd otherwise expect. 

We did hear about the issue years ago when Honda issued one recall in 2008, and then another one in 2009.  It's just that the failures keep happening so they keep expanding the recalls.

edit see:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/business/air-bag-flaw-long-known-led-to-recalls.html

That said, I'm not freaking out.  Probably more dangerous to drive around with no airbags than the low risk of getting hit by shrapnel.


arebelspy

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Re: Airbag recall
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2014, 03:41:30 PM »
Does it happen in all instances of the airbags deploying?  Or just some?

What are the odds of getting into an accident where the airbags deploy?
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