Nissan recalls 226,000 additional vehicles

A recall announced by Nissan over an issue with airbags will now cover over 226,000 additional vehicles. The defective airbags have also impacted a number of car manufacturers.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nissan North America Inc is recalling certain lines of Infiniti, Maxima, Pathfinder and Sentra vehicles produced between the years 2002 and 2004.

Already, the faulty airbags, made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp, had led to manufacturers recalling millions of cars around the world. Car manufacturers, including Honda, BMW, Ford, Toyota, and Chrysler had all been affected.

The defect, which affects the passenger side airbag, arises from the inflators that can cause the airbags to splinter and break. This could result in serious injuries to people in the car.

Nissan representative Brian Brockman said he was not aware of any injuries caused by the airbag. Nissan had already recalled over 400,000 cars due to the issue, which brought the total number of recalled cars to 664,628.

The latest Nissan recall, which would impact a total of 226,326 cars, would begin on 11 August, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Nissan would replace the faulty inflators, free of charge.  This would affect both airbags that were originally installed in the cars, and the faulty airbags that were replacements.

The car maker has recalled its Infiniti I32 (2002-2003 model), Infiniti FX35 (2003), Infiniti FX45 (2003), Infiniti QX42 (2002-2003), Maxima (2002-2003), Pathfinder (2002-2003), and Sentra (2002-2004).

While there have been no incidents involving the defective airbags, Nissan is taking this step as a safety precaution.

Tokyo-based Takata Corp, which supplies car parts had developed the air bag system that was at the centre of the latest and other related recalls.

There had been complaints about the inflators rupturing, which could cause metal fragments to be ejected at a force out of the system when the airbags get deployed in crashes.