Air bag recalls involve

Air bag recalls involve 1EDT April 11, 2013A steering wheel air bag made by Takata.The recall urges owners of certain older Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, General Motors and BMW vehicles to take their cars to dealerships. There, mechanics may need to replace faulty canisters that contain the propellant that activates air bags.The issue centers on over aggressive propellants in canisters that inflate air bags that could throw off shrapnel or cause bags to rip or tear, reducing their effectiveness in a crash, according to Takata, the Japanese company that manufactured them. this year. For all of 2012, there were 22.This isnt Takatas biggest recall. The supplier had to replace millions of seat belts in 1995 to replace defective buckles.There were other recent hints of similar trouble involving Takata air bags. In December 2011, Honda launched the fourth expansion of a recall of overly powerful drivers side air bags that could potentially spew shrapnel and kill or maim. Two deaths and 19 injuries were caused by the problem.The only mystery is why it took so long for the recall to expand to the passenger side and to vehicles from other makers, says Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.Although most of the vehicles in the recall are about a decade old, the problem didnt crop up until 2011, when Takata says in its filing that it was first made aware of the problem.