Nissan Recalls Certain Leaf And Sentra Cars For Defective Airbags

Nissan is recalling certain units of the Leaf and Sentra, whose airbags may deploy improperly in the event of a crash.

Unrelated to the massive Takata safety campaign, the defect has been identified at the supplier, a Kentucky-based company called Daicel, and affects 25,283 units of the aforementioned cars.

“Due to airbag inflator components manufactured by a tier 5 supplier with atypical conditions that have since been corrected, certain front passenger airbags may not perform as designed. More specifically, the coolant within these inflators may have been affected by two potential conditions“, the NHTSA says, pointing the finger at rust and tooling excessive wear.

Owners of the 2015-2017 Nissan Leafs, made from September 20, 2014, to December 13, 2016, and 2014-2017 Sentras, assembled between September 1, 2014, and December 31, 2016, will be notified by the automaker and advised to schedule an appointment with an authorized dealer. Subsequently, technicians will replace the front passenger airbag inflator, free of charge.

The recall is expected to begin on June 11, but until then, owners can contact the manufacturer at 1-800-647-7261, or the NHTSA at 1-888-327-4236, for any questions they may have on the topic.

This safety campaign follows a previous one from last summer, when 4,355 units of the 2016MY Leaf and Sentra were called back in to fix their defective passenger airbags.