Big carmakers expand recalls of vehicles with faulty airbags

PanARMENIAN.Net - Three big carmakers have expanded recalls of vehicles with faulty airbags, BBC News reports.

The move from Fiat Chrysler, Honda and BMW comes after Takata Corp, the Japanese airbag maker last week said the number of vehicles affected was 53 million globally. Of that figure, 34 million are in the U.S., making it the country's largest ever recall of cars.

The faulty airbags, when exposed to too much moisture, can explode.

Regulators have linked the problem to six deaths worldwide, all in Honda vehicles. Honda has called back about 690,000 cars in the U.S. and Japan. Since 2008, Honda has recalled about 20 million vehicles around the world with Takata air bag parts.

Fiat Chrysler announced an expansion of its recalls of vehicles with Takata air bags to about 5.22 million worldwide, involving models from 2003 to 2011. About 4.5 million of those vehicles are in the U.S.

Most of the vehicles have been involved in previous recalls and are from the 2003 to 2011 model years, the car maker said.

BMW in North America is recalling 20 models from 2002 to 2006 that contain Takata driver-side front air bags. Regulators said the air bag module will be replaced.