Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda are involved in a massive airbag recall that could see as many as 2.9-million vehicles worldwide recalled for explodingairbags.

The Japanese airbag supplier Takata makes airbags for many manufacturers that also includes BMW and General Motors. So far, the problem is only linked to airbags made in the early 2000s, where upon airbag deployment, shards of metal could be shot either up towards the windscreen or down towards the passenger footwell. Takata is still trying to assess why the fault seemingly occurs mostly in hot, humid climates as the six incidents that have been reported came from Florida in the US and Puerto Rico.

In one incident cited by US highway safety regulators, a one-inch piece of metal propelled from an exploding airbag hit the right eye of the driver of a 2005 Honda Civic, causing loss of sight and facial lacerations that required 100 stitches.

Local Manufacturers Affected

Local vehicles will be recalled including Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda.

Certain 2001-2003 Honda CR-V, Accord, Civic and Jazz models. Honda will be in contact with affected owners as to the next course of action.

Nissan reports that none of its vehicles locally are not affected by the recall, but globally vehicles such as the Cube, X-Trail and some Infiniti models will be recalled.

Toyota will be recalling Corollas built from April 2002 to June 2003 to atallyof over 4 000 Corollas locally.

Mazda’s affected vehicles are the Atenza and RX-8.

Defects from USA and Mexico

The root of the defective airbags has been traced to two plants worldwide, one in the USA and the other in Mexico. The problem was first exposed in April 2013 when Takata notified US safety regulators about the problem, which resulted in an initial three-million vehicle recall from Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The extent of the problem was not fully known then and now it’s believed vehicles from GM and BMW may also be affected.