Takata airbag recall expanded to 33.8 million cars

In a safety campaign of historic proportions, 33.8 million vehicles equipped with defective airbag inflators will be recalled, according to a joint announcement from parts supplier Takata and the Department of Transportation (DOT).

This doubles the scale for the existing recall of roughly 17 million vehicles equipped with defective airbags, and it now counts BMW, Chrysler, Daimler Trucks, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota among the affected automakers.

Up to this point, Takata has remained conservative, refusing to issue a nationwide recall for the potentially faulty airbag inflators. Any recalls for Takata airbags were issued by the automakers themselves. Beyond the massive scale the total recall now encompasses, it is significant that Takata now acknowledges that a defect exists in its inflators.

The propellant in the recalled driver and front passenger airbag inflators can degrade over time, and though automakers previously focused on areas of high humidity, the danger was significant enough in other regions that the DOT saw fit to expand to nationwide recalls, resulting in the additional 17 million vehicles.

According to the DOT release, the root cause of the malfunction has not yet been established. However, the government agency has found that time and moisture changes the chemical composition of the igniter propellant. In a deployment, these conditions conspire to ignite the airbag too quickly, resulting in "excess pressure that causes the inflator to rupture and sends metal shards into the cabin that can lead to serious injury or death."

At least five fatalities and more than 100 injuries have been linked to the Takata airbags.

For more information about this recall, read "Everything you need to know about the Takata recall."

You can also check out NHTSA's site on the Takata recalls: SaferCar.gov/RecallsSpotlight. It provides a VIN lookup tool to see if your car is affected.

—George Kennedy