Nissan recalls nearly 4 million cars with air bag problems

NEW YORK — Nearly 4 million Nissan cars are being recalled due to major safety problems where passenger air bags or seat belts could fail in a crash, leading to serious injuries or fatalities.

The two recalls are just the latest in a string of safety problems to hit automakers in the past year with Acura, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Toyota and other manufactures having to recall cars over air bag problems. The Nissan problems are unrelated to the other air bag issues.

Nissan North America, Inc. said that 3.2 million cars may have a problem with a sensor that detects if the front passenger seat is occupied and if that passenger is an adult or a child. Defective sensors might incorrectly think that an adult is a child or classify the seat as empty, thus turning off the air bag.

The recall applies to certain cars of the following models: the 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF and Sentra, 2013-2017 Nissan Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60 and Q50, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Chevrolet City Express and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles.

Nissan will notify owners of the problem and offer to fix it for free, however no schedule has yet been provided for when these notices will go out or how quickly the repairs can be made.

Nissan is also recalling another 620,000 of its 2013-2016 Sentras.

In these cars, the air bag sensor has the opposite problem: It isn’t shutting off when it should be. The automaker said the front passenger seat belt bracket may become deformed if it is used to secure a child restraint system. That deformed seat bracket might then cause the air bag not to shut off when it should be off.

Nissan has not yet figured out how to fix the problem and is warning owners not to install child restraint systems in the front seats. It will take Nissan more than a month to notify owners of the problem and then the carmaker will follow up with a second letter once it figures out a solution, which will be free. TVJ

source: business.inquirer.net

Nissan recalls over 123,000 Altimas in US for spare tire issue

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is recalling more than 123,000 Altima sedans in the United States to adjust the inflation of the spare tires, which could be over- or under-inflated.

About 123,308 Altimas from model year 2013 are affected by the recall, according to documents filed by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Due to a production issue that has since been corrected, the spare tires in some of the recalled cars may have too much or not enough air in them, NHTSA said. In some cases, the over inflation may have been significant enough to hurt the tires' structural integrity, causing them to fail and increasing the risk of a crash, NHTSA said.

Nissan said there were no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue.

The problem was discovered by a dealer and an investigation by Nissan found the problem was caused by a malfunctioning pressure regulator at its Canton, Mississippi, plant, NHTSA said.

Nissan will check the spare tires and adjust the inflation as needed, NHTSA said. If after further investigation by Nissan, the tire pressure exceeded a certain threshold, the spare tire would be replaced. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com