Continental Recalls 5 Million Vehicles Worldwide Over Faulty Airbags

The filing also mentioned an additional risk in vehicles manufactured by Daimler AG and Chrysler, saying there was “a risk of an inadvertent deployment of the airbags if the ACU [air bag control unit] malfunctions, which could increase the risk of a crash and/or injuries”. Fiat Chrysler said none of the affected vehicles used air-bag inflaters equipped with ammonium nitrate, a chemical propellant linked to problems in exploding air bags made by a separate company, Takata Corp.

A driver in Belleview, Florida, was injured when his auto hit a concrete wall at 50 miles per hour and the air bags didn’t inflate, according to one complaint.

The German based company says it supplied the control systems that might be defective to six carmakers, including Honda, Fiat Chrysler, and Mercedes-Benz, over a 5-year period.

Honda said the driver-side airbag inflators in these vehicles may experience “over-pressurization” due to exposure to high temperatures and high absolute humidity. Instead, this is an extension of the Continental recall affecting 112,001 Chrysler, Dodge, and Volkswagen vehicles we wrote about earlier today.

Honda previously has recalled more than 6 million US vehicles since 2008 to replace defective Takata inflators.

Unrelated to the Takata airbag crisis, another major airbag recall is taking shape Continental Automotive Systems.

Brauer says he thinks a manufacturer holding a dealer more accountable for the backlash of safety recalls is simply them doing everything they can to try to handle the situation. About 24 million USA vehicles are being recalled for that problem.

Years after the Takata airbag inflator issue was brought to light, automakers like Honda is still working to clean up the mess Takata-made with the whole airbag exploding issue. We will update this story as soon as we know more.

The faulty airbags have been blamed for at least 11 deaths, and led to a recall of around 20 million cars.

Carmakers will replace the computers at no cost to owners, according to documents. More than 126,000 Mercedes C-series released in 2008 and 2009 including 2010 GLK250 cars are also bound to be recalled from existing users. Parts are expected to be available in Fall 2016.

Owners will get an initial recall letter, plus a second notification once parts become available.

The cars involved include many popular nameplates, from the Fit subcompact to the CR-V SUV. But it said it will be summer before it has the replacement airbags it needs to make the swap.