Continental Airbag Recall Affects 5 Million Vehicles

The supplier said the airbags’ power-control units may corrode and interrupt electrical connections, causing the devices to either deploy inadvertently or fail to activate, according to filings to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The Japanese auto giant is recalling 4.4m cars worldwide, including 1.2m in Europe, because of Takata Corp air bag inflators which can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle. Included in that total are 2.2 million Honda vehicles recalled earlier this week in the United States for the same issue. Among the impacted vehicles are those manufactured by Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat Chrysler, Volvo Trucks and Mazda.

The filing has also revealed that Continental has been aware of the defect in some units of the airbag component since January 2008, but had largely left the issue addressed all these years.

Continental is now notify automakers who have the affected units installed in their vehicles.

Right now, 14 automakers have recalled around 25 million cars because of the defective Takata air bags. The airbags have been the cause of 10 deaths so far although no death or injuries caused by the PSDI-5 airbag inflator that Honda is recalling right now have been reported.

Meanwhile, an analyst thinks that the Continental air bag recall can’t be compared to the Takata air bag recall, mainly because fewer vehicles are impacted by Continental’s recall. At least two injuries are attributed to the defect. Mercedes-Benz is one step ahead, having already recalled 126,260 2008-2009 C-Class models plus 2010 GLK 350s last October.