HMC Honda Motor Co Ltd

Federal regulators ordered auto makers to recall up to another 40 million rupture-prone Takata Corp. air bags, more than doubling the largest automotive safety campaign in U.S. history.

An estimated additional 35 million to 40 million Takata air-bag inflaters that employ ammonium nitrate as a propellant and lack a drying agent to prevent moisture must be recalled by the end of 2019, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday.

The recalls will be conducted by affected auto makers in five phases starting this month, the agency said.

Regulators said they had determined a three-pronged root cause for Takata air bags rupturing: the age of inflaters, prolonged exposure to moisture and fluctuating high temperatures. U.S. officials, Takata and auto makers have spent years attempting to determine what causes the air bags to explode and spray shrapnel, a defect linked to 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries globally.

The recall adds to 28.8 million air-bag inflaters affecting some 24 million vehicles already being recalled by 14 auto makers. There still remain tens of millions of other Takata air bags that haven't yet been recalled.

The U.S.'s top car-safety regulator determined the more-than-35-million air bags posed an unreasonable safety risk and decided to order the additional recalls after reviewing three investigations of the problematic equipment conducted by Takata; a group of 10 auto makers; and Honda Motor Co., the auto maker most affected by the defective devices. U.S. officials confirmed findings in the reports outlining the root cause of the air-bag ruptures. Older vehicles with exposure to moisture and fluctuating high temperatures will be recalled first.

The total number of vehicles affected by the expanded recall won't be fully known until auto makers start submitting data to regulators, but it is likely to be tens of millions. The result is nearly one in every four of the 250 million vehicles currently on U.S. roads is likely to be affected by the Takata recall.

"We are now talking about a large percentage of the air bags in the U.S. vehicle population," said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.

Mr. Rosekind said Takata cooperated with the latest recall expansion and appeared to be "turning the corner" toward a better safety and regulatory compliance culture. But he noted Takata "misled, obscured and withheld information" from consumers, regulators and auto makers. "We can't lose sight of that," he said.

A Takata spokesman had no immediate comment. Takata has admitted to manipulating test data and failing to alert regulators to defective air bags in a timely manner as legally required.

Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 04, 2016 14:25 ET (18:25 GMT)

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