Mazda Southern Africa has announced that approximately 19 000 local vehicles have been included in the latest recall for potentially defective airbags.
The recall follows investigative recalls by Mazda in Japan and North America for three different types of Takata-manufactured inflators.
“Although no cases of abnormal deployment or dangerous flaws have been found in any Mazda vehicles in the course of the investigative recall, the concern had deemed an extended formal recall campaign necessary,” the automaker said in a statement.
The vehicles included in the recall in South Africa are the Mazda2, Mazda6 and RX-8, produced from 2003 with VIN numbers starting with MM6DE, JM6GG and JMZSE.
These include vehicles equipped with the “PSDI-4” driver-side airbag inflator, the “SDI-160” driver-side airbag inflator, or the “SPI”, “SDI-230” and “PSPI” passenger-side airbag inflators.
“The recall is due to an inappropriate production condition and storage of the propellant in the inflator. The density of the propellant may be insufficient in the inflator. This might cause the propellant to ignite abnormally at the time of airbag deployment and potentially result in extremely high inner pressure of the inflator causing a rupture of the inflator case. In a case of a rupture, the airbag might not deploy as designed and may lead to injury,” the statement added.
Mazda Southern Africa said that it was conducting a repair procedure to replace the suspect inflators with “improved” units, adding that the number of locally affected vehicles “will be subject to further review and may change”.
If your vehicle is included in the recall, contact Mazda SA on 0860 069 700 or email [email protected].
