BMW recalls 220,000 vehicles over airbag issue

BMW will be recalling some 220,000 vehicles over an airbag issue that causes the front passenger seat airbag from not inflating correctly due to a manufacturing defect in the airbag inflator. No reports of injuries or accidents have been reported, but officials say that the malfunction could cause a fire or passengers being injured by metal fragments shooting out of the airbag.

The recall affects BMW's 3-series and M3 vehicles from 2002 to 2003, and according to data from the NHTSA, there are about 1.3 million of these vehicles in the US, with just over 42,000 of them being recalled, which means that only a small percentage of these cars are affected by the malfunctioning airbag.

The faulty airbags, made by Takata, were produced from April 2000 to September 2002 at one of the company's plants in Washington state, according to the NHTSA. The propellant components in the airbag's inflator may have been produced with an insufficient "compaction force," leading to malfunctioning when the airbag is activated,

However, the recall most likely won't affect all the cars involved. BMW spokesman Dave Buchko said that all five car manufacturers involved in the massive Takata recall, there was only about a small handful of improper deployments (around a dozen total) of airbags that have been reported among over 3.4 million vehicles affected.

[via Reuters]