Continental Recalls Air-Bag Control Units
February 04 2016 - 12:30PM
Dow Jones News
Continental Automotive Systems Inc. recalled five million
potentially defective air-bag control units globally for problems
that cause the safety equipment to inadvertently deploy or fail to
activate altogether.
Honda Motor Co., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Daimler AG's
Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG are among car makers that purchased
the affected equipment for possible use in vehicles, according to
documents Continental filed with U.S. regulators.
Fewer than two million affected vehicles are in the U.S.,
according to a spokeswoman for Continental in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Continental Automotive is a division of Germany's Continental
AG.
The Continental spokeswoman said the company is working closely
with affected car makers and providing them with relevant
information. The spokeswoman said each auto maker determines
whether a defect exists in their respective vehicles.
Fiat Chrysler on Thursday said it was recalling about 112,000
older crossovers and minivans in the U.S. due to the problem, which
the car maker described as components being subjected to unintended
moisture that can cause air bags to accidentally deploy or, more
likely, a warning light to illuminate.
The Italian-U.S. auto maker said it was aware of seven minor
injuries possibly tied to the problem, but no accidents. Fiat
Chrysler said none of the affected vehicles used air-bag inflaters
equipped with ammonium nitrate, a chemical propellant linked to
problems in exploding air bags made by a separate company, Takata
Corp.
Honda, meanwhile, said it would recall roughly 341,000 2008-2010
Accord sedans in the U.S. to replace an electronic-control unit
susceptible to moisture that can lead to corrosion and eventual
malfunction, causing an air bag to fail to deploy. Honda said it
was aware of two injuries linked to the problem.
Other car makers didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Continental in regulatory filings said variations in the
manufacturing process for a power-supply component can cause a
semiconductor material to corrode and eventually cut electrical
connections. As a result, air bags can fail to deploy in a crash or
inadvertently fire.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started
probing the problem in August amid complaints that air bags failed
to deploy in 2008 Honda Accords.
The Continental recall comes on the heels of widening recalls of
rupture-prone Takata air bags linked to nearly a dozen deaths
globally.
Auto makers in the U.S. are recalling more than 24 million
vehicles with Takata air bags, which can explode and spray
shrapnel.
While unrelated, the Continental and Takata recalls deepen
air-bag woes for auto makers. Air bags have long been considered
among the most significant modern automotive safety breakthroughs,
supplementing seat belts as a critical feature for reducing highway
deaths.
But lawmakers and others have expressed alarm over the failure
to spot and report defective Takata air bags over long time
periods.
Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 04, 2016 12:15 ET (17:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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