Record-breaking Takata airbag recall expands again

Takata recalls pushed well over the 1-million mark, with 816,000 Ford, Lincoln, Mercury vehicles added.

|
Shizuo Kambayashi/AP/File
Child seats manufactured by Takata Corp. are displayed at a Toyota Motor Corp.'s showroom in Tokyo. Scientists hired by the auto industry have determined the circumstances that cause Takata air bags to explode violently.

It's been a very busy week in the auto world–and it's not over yet.

Over the past few days, the 2017 North American International Auto Show kicked off in Detroit; Volkswagen's ongoing Dieselgate scandal reached a massively important milestone; and one of the largest recalls in history–the one involving Takata's fatally flawed airbag inflators–added hundreds of thousands of vehicles to its repair list. 

Now, Ford has pushed this week's Takata additions well over the one-million mark. This morning, the automaker said that it was recalling more than 816,000 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles in North America to replace potentially dangerous airbag inflators.

Recall details

As with the Honda and Acura recall we reported on yesterday, today's action from Ford addresses passenger-side airbags. Those devices are equipped with inflators that make use of ammonium nitrate–a compound that can become highly unstable in the presence of heat and moisture.

When that happens, those inflators can deploy with too much force during collisions, ripping airbags and showering vehicle occupants with hot shrapnel. (For a full explanation of the problem, click here.) 

To date, Takata airbags have been conclusively linked to 16 deaths and well over 100 injuries worldwide. Most of those incidents have occurred in Honda vehicles, which isn't surprising considering that Honda was, until fairly recently, Takata's biggest client.

However, at least one driver of a Ford vehicle has been killed by the faulty inflators. That incident sparked a new sense of urgency among U.S. regulators and automakers, who subsequently accelerated the pace of recalls.  

That brings us to today and Ford's recall of the following makes and models:

  • 2007-09 Ford Edge
  • 2005-06 Ford GT
  • 2006-09 and 2012 Ford Fusion
  • 2005-09 and 2012 Ford Mustang
  • 2007-09 Ford Ranger
  • 2006-09 and 2012 Lincoln Zephyr
  • 2007-09 Lincoln MKX
  • 2006-09 and 2012 Lincoln MKZ
  • 2006-09 Mercury Milan

Despite the aforementioned death of a driver in a Ford Ranger pickup, Ford says that it has received no reports of passengers being injured or killed by airbag inflators on the vehicles recalled today.

The recall affects 816,309 vehicles in North America, 654,695 of which are registered in the U.S. and 161,174 of which are registered in Canada. Owners of those vehicles will receive recall notices from Ford by mail. The notices will explain when and how owners should schedule service with their local dealers. According to Ford, that service will involve replacement of the passenger-side frontal airbag inflator–a fix that will be carried out at no charge to owners.

If you own one of the vehicles listed above and have further questions, Ford has set up a special "Frequently Asked Questions" page on its website, where you can find answers to some of the most common questions about Takata airbags and the recall.

To find out whether your vehicle is included in today's recall–or any other Ford recall, for that matter–visit the recalls section of Ford's website for owners and enter your car's vehicle identification number in the search bar at the bottom of the page. Those who prefer communicating by phone can also call Ford's customer service line at 800-392-3673 and ask about safety recall #17S01.

This story originally appeared on The Car Connection.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Record-breaking Takata airbag recall expands again
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2017/0113/Record-breaking-Takata-airbag-recall-expands-again
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe