It's one of the biggest recalls to date.
What went wrong with the Takata airbags? Briefly, to inflate an airbag rapidly in the event of a significant impact, you need a chemical reaction which, when triggered by the heat generated by a pulse of electrical current in the “igniter” inside the airbag assembly, would produce an adequate amount of non-toxic gas in a fast, but controlled reaction.
The chemical compounds used as propellants in the first airbags were stable enough not to cause any problems. But in the late 1990s Takata decided, for reasons still shrouded in controversy, to switch to ammonium nitrate, a less stable compound. Specifically, a combination of temperature fluctuations and moisture can make ammonium nitrate degrade over time to an unstable form.
Coupled with this was that deficient quality control at Takata's factory in Mexico led to substandard inflator canisters being used, which allowed humid air to enter the inflator. When an airbag with unstable compounds deploys in a crash, the chemicals react more rapidly than intended and over-pressurise the inflator's metal canister, causing fragmentation.
It's unclear how many cars with defective airbags were sold in SA, but it is certainly not something with which the owner of a car made between 2002 and 2015 should take a chance. To check whether your car is included in the recall, get in touch with the customer support department of the manufacturer, with the car's VIN at hand.
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