The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has put a hold on recalling about 50 million air bag inflators, saying it needs more time to collect additional information after fielding comments that claim not all the inflators are defective. 

In 2023, NHTSA made an initial decision to recall driver and passenger inflators manufactured by ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive Systems since January 2018. It said the inflators could endanger and kill vehicle occupants when they ruptured and ejected metal debris upon air bag deployment. 

A supplemental initial decision was issued by NHTSA in July reaffirming its previous decision. 

“After consideration of comments, NHTSA is conducting additional investigation of the issues related to the Supplemental Initial Decision,” NHTSA said in a memorandum uploaded to the Federal Register Dec. 18. “Specifically, commenters raised technical and engineering differences between the inflators as incorporated into the manufacturers’ respective vehicles, along with process differences between the relevant plants and manufacturing lines. Given the potential relevance of these issues to the agency’s decision-making, including the appropriate scope of any recall, further investigation is warranted.”

NHTSA said it plans to issue an additional information request letter to ARC, manufacturers, and Tier 1 suppliers in the coming weeks. 

Questions directed at ARC will focus on its production process, use of friction welding, and borescope inspections, the memo says. The company also will be asked to provide more details on design and specification differences between driver and passenger inflators. 

Manufacturers will be asked for more detail regarding air bag inflator and module specification differences and whether those differences may impact susceptibility of failure, NHTSA said. 

Tier 1 suppliers will be asked about their air bag inflator suppliers’ use of friction welding and the specification development process for air bag inflators and air bag modules. 

“NHTSA will evaluate the responses to these information requests along with all available information to determine how to proceed,” the memo says. “If appropriate, NHTSA will provide a further opportunity for public comment prior to considering whether to issue a final decision in this matter, in accordance with the legal process for a recall order.”

NHTSA started investigating ARC inflators in 2015 after receiving reports of ruptured driver-side air bag inflators in 2002 Chrysler Town & Country and 2004 Kia Optima vehicles.

Documents uploaded by NHTSA point to a friction weld used in the manufacturing of the inflator as the cause of the defect. Multiple automakers have disputed the weld as the cause of the defect in their comments. 

IMAGES

Photo courtesy of jpgfactory/iStock