Toyota again recalled 650,000 cars in Japan on Wednesday over the issue of defective passenger airbags, bringing the total recall to about 2.27 million units worldwide, research says.
Considered as the biggest automaker in the world, the past series of recalls injured the reputation of the company with regards to safety of its cars.
Research shows the airbags were made by Japanese company Takata Corporation, referred to as the second best manufacturer of auto-safety equipment in the world. Takata admits of possibly more recalls from other car makers, mainly because of its problems tracking the possible defects with passenger airbag inflators that are decades old.
Toyota says in a statement that it will renotify the owners of particular vehicles entangled in the safety recall in April 2013 on the issue of front passenger airbag inflators instated in many models. The company will send the notification letter via first class mail.
The recall remedy in 2013 involved an inspection of the vehicle’s front passenger air bag as well as a replacement of affected inflator with a newly manufactured unit without any charge to the owner. Toyota, however, is said to be changing its remedy procedures. It found out that the serial numbers involved and provided by the supplier were not complete and didn’t include all the possibly affected inflators.
“For vehicles which were inspected and did not receive a replacement inflator, Toyota will re-notify the owners and replace the inflator with a new one. For vehicles which have not received the 2013 recall remedy previously, Toyota is changing the remedy from 'inspect and replace the inflator if it is involved' to 'replace the inflator with a new one,'" Toyota says.
The vehicles involved were installed with front passenger airbag inflators that may have been assembled with incorrectly manufactured propellant. A wrong manufacture of propellant could lead the inflator to break and the front passenger airbag to abnormally deploy during cases of car crashes. Toyota also discloses that it already received a report of burning of a seat cover because of the safety issue.
The 2013 recall covered around 766,300 Toyota vehicles in the U.S., which include vehicles that previously went through inspection and received the replacement inflator. Such recall includes certain Sequioa Model Year 2002-2004 ; certain Lexus SC 430 coupes Model Year 2002-2004; and certain Toyota Corolla, Corolla Matrix, and Tundra Model Year 2003-2004.
