Nissan warns owners of older vehicles not to drive them due to risk of exploding air bag inflators

Nissan is urging the owners of about 84,000 older vehicles in the US to stop driving them because their Takata airbag inflators are at high risk of exploding in a crash and hurling metal fragments

Nissan Takata Air Bags (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Nissan is urging the owners of about 84,000 older US vehicles to stop driving them because their Takata airbag inflators have an increased risk of exploding in a crash and hurling dangerous metal fragments.

Wednesday's urgent request comes after one person in a Nissan was killed by an exploding front-passenger inflator, and as many as 58 people were injured since 2015.

“Due to the age of the vehicles equipped with defective Takata airbag inflators, there is an increased risk the inflator could explode during an airbag deployment, propelling sharp metal fragments which can cause serious injury or death,” Nissan said in a statement. A spokesperson added that the issue did not affect UK customers.

Nissan said the “do not drive” warning covers certain 2002 through 2006 Sentra small cars, as well as some 2002 through 2004 Pathfinder SUVs, and 2002 and 2003 Infiniti QX4 SUVs. Owners can find out if their vehicles are affected by going to nissanusa.com/takata-airbag-recall or infinitiusa.com/takata-airbag-recall and keying in their 17-digit vehicle identification number.

The company says owners should contact their dealer to set up an appointment to have inflators replaced for free. Nissan also is offering free towing to dealers, and in some locations mobile service and loan cars are available.

Nissan originally recalled 736,422 of the vehicles to replace the Takata inflators. The company said around 84,000 remain unrepaired and are believed to still be in use.

Nissan said it has made numerous attempts to reach the owners with unrepaired Takata inflators.

The death was reported to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2018, the company said. The person killed was in a 2006 Sentra, according to Nissan.

The death is one of 27 in the US caused by the faulty inflators, which used volatile ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate airbags in a crash. The chemical can deteriorate over time when exposed to high temperatures and humidity. It can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing shrapnel. More than 400 people in the US have been hurt.

Worldwide at least 35 people have been killed by Takata inflators in Malaysia, Australia and the U.S.

Potential for a dangerous malfunction led to the largest series of auto recalls in US history, with at least 67 million Takata inflators involved. The US government says many have not been repaired. About 100 million inflators have been recalled worldwide. The exploding airbags sent Takata into bankruptcy.

Honda, Ford, BMW, Toyota and Stellantis and Mazda have issued similar “do not drive” warnings for some of their vehicles equipped with Takata inflators.