Airbag, Seatbelt Fears Lead to 3.4-million-vehicle Toyota Recall

by Steph Willems

Published: January 22nd, 2020

airbag seatbelt fears lead to 3 4 million vehicle toyota recall

A ghost in the machine that could render passive safety systems like airbags and seatbelt pretensioners useless has infected a range of Toyota models, sparking a global recall of roughly 3.4 million vehicles — some 2,891,976 of those in the United States.

While the suspected fault only rears its head in certain types of crashes, owners would probably prefer their airbags deploy in all major impacts.

According to Toyota, the recall affects the 2011-2019 Corolla, 2011-2013 Matrix, 2012-2018 Avalon, and 2013-2018 Avalon Hybrid. Blame mixed signals for the recall.

The automaker says the affected vehicles “may be equipped with an electronic control unit (ECU) from a specific supplier designed to receive signals from crash sensors and deploy the airbags and seat belt pretensioners. “

“The ECU may not have adequate protection against certain electrical noise that can occur in certain crashes, such as severe underride crashes,” Toyota stated. “This can lead to incomplete or nondeployment of the airbags and/or seat belt pretensioners.”

It goes without saying that having both of these features working properly will greatly improve your odds of surviving a crash.

The remedy, Toyota claims, is a noise filter placed between the airbag control module and wire harness. An inspection will first determine whether a recalled vehicle needs the filter at all. Owners should be notified of the no-cost remedy by mid-March.

According to documents posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Toyota is unable to provide an estimate for the percentage of vehicles estimated to contain the defect.” While the fault has been determined to occur only in very specific circumstances (crashes where there is significant engine compartment intrusion before significant deceleration), the NHTSA stated that Toyota “is unable to estimate the likelihood for this to occur in the real world.”

Attempts to replicate the fault in testing have proven inconclusive. One potential real-world example of the fault occured in May of 2018, when a Corolla’s airbags failed to deploy following a frontal collision in California. However, supplier ZF-TRW was unable to download data from the ECU.

[Image: Toyota]

#Airbags #CrashProtection #Recalls #Safety #Toyota

Steph Willems

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11 of 20 comments

FreedMike on Jan 22, 2020

Well, Takata's a gift that just keeps on giving.

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- NormSV650 on Jan 22, 2020
  
  Or is it Toyota Sudden Acceleration all over again?
  
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- Peter Gazis on Jan 22, 2020
  
  FreedMike Nothing to do with Takata. Takata’s problemwas the airbag cartridges would blow up, sending shrapnel in every direction. This is a problem with safety devices not activating during an accident.
  
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- Geozinger on Jan 22, 2020
  
  @NormSV650 Does this remind anyone of anything during the unintended acceleration days? "However, supplier ZF-TRW was unable to download data from the ECU..." The more things change, the more they stay the same...
  
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- Conundrum on Jan 22, 2020
  
  @Peter Gazis Not much to do with Toyota either, despite your warbling. It's a supplier issue, but the assembler has to front the faults to the public. Did anyone with a brain really blame Honda for Takata airbags? Only those with a bone to pick with Honda. I see the same sort of illogic towards Toyota in your remarks, and thus dismiss them out-of-hand. Never owned either a Honda or a Toyota in my life, either. So you're out of luck on that front for a retort.
  
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- Peter Gazis on Jan 22, 2020
  
  @conundrum Cunundrum Toyota owns most of its suppliers. So it is a Toyota problem.
  
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- Geozinger on Jan 23, 2020
  
  @conundrum Honda was complicit in certifying Takata airbags for production. They are part of the problem.
  
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- NormSV650 on Jan 23, 2020
  
  @conundrum "...Takata needs the sign-off of carmaker customers led by Honda on its plans because the costs of air bag repairs and legal liabilities may exceed the assets on its balance sheet and the amount of investment bidders are said to have offered....All but one of the (XXX) motorists who’ve died in fatal accidents involving Takata inflators in the U.S., Malaysia and India occurred in Honda vehicles..." San Antonio Express
  
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- NormSV650 on Jan 23, 2020
  
  @conundrum "...Takata executives are focused on finding short-term solutions to their troubles. That may not be easy. Honda Motors, which has now turned to Takata's competitors for inflator units, accounted for almost 40% of the company's revenues last year.
  
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- NormSV650 on Jan 23, 2020
  
  @conundrum DETROIT (Reuters) - In August of 2009, after ruptured airbag inflators in Honda vehicles were linked to least four injuries and a death, the automaker quietly requested a design change and did not notify U.S. regulators, Honda confirmed in response to inquiries from Reuters...The request shows that Honda understood the safety risks posed by the inflators long before it started expanding recalls by the millions in 2014, the attorneys and law professors said....The fail-safe modification - outlined in Takata technical documents and internal presentations between 2009 and 2011 and confirmed by Honda - added vents in the inflator to channel pressure from an explosion away from a driver’s neck and torso....Honda is Takata’s biggest customer, and the automaker owns a small stake in the airbag supplier....“You can’t say, ‘It’s a supplier problem, not ours, so we don’t have to talk about it,” he said. “They are responsible for every part on their car and also responsible to report a problem with any part on that car.”.....Six of those deaths and 70 injuries have occurred since Takata began producing the new inflator design for Honda starting in late 2010...Honda officials “made a determination of a defect when they asked for the fail-safe design,” said Kristensen. “They had an obligation to tell the government back in 2009. Good luck defending that.”....
  
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Sharon B on Sep 06, 2020

We have had repairs completed for two recalls on our 2013 Corolla -- one for the Takata airbag, and the second (in the beginning of July 2020) for the noise filter. After the second fix, we experienced the strange occurrence of the "seat belt not fastened" indicator (for the passenger side) lighting up, as well as that of the "airbag off" light. (The SRS airbag symbol to the left of the tachometer would also light up.) The car would go a few days without this occurring, and then out of the blue, the indicators would light up. Dealer couldn't recreate the condition, nor did the ECU show that there had been a problem. We finally brought the car in while the indicators were flashing. We were told that the diagnostic code indicated that it was the "seat belt pretensioner". They had to contact Toyota to see if this fix was covered(!). We had an appointment scheduled for when they first expected the part to be available. We went in, they said that their computer inventory said it was there, but it was not. Unfortunately, whatever part is necessary is out-of-stock and on back order, with no idea of when it will be available. Meanwhile, I'm being chauffeured for almost two months, because I can't sit in the front passenger seat.

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