— Joyson airbag recalls that affected several automakers caused the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to open an "equipment query" into the passenger airbags and resulting recalls.
NHTSA opened it's investigation to determine if the previous recalls finally solved the airbag problems.
The airbag recalls began in 2019 with Mercedes-Benz and Toyota. Both automakers recalled vehicles because the Joyson passenger airbags could deploy too late or only partially, making them practically useless in crashes.
Some of the recalled vehicles had already been recalled for airbag problems but had to be recalled again when the replacement airbags were found to be defective.
In 2020 General Motors announced a recall of passenger airbags, and in 2021 Nissan recalled Infiniti models that had been repaired under previous recalls. But the replacements had problems with how they unfolded in crash impacts, again making the airbags meaningless for occupants.
Joyson responded by saying the Mercedes recall involved only 11 vehicles because the automaker, "inadvertently installed 11 prototype airbag modules into vehicles for the stream of commerce." Joyson says only these 11 vehicles were affected and the mistake by Mercedes didn't affect other car manufacturers.
Joyson also said it sold airbags to Toyota which used them on the Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe which were built on the same single vehicle platform. GM had to handle the Pontiac Vibe recall because certain GM dealers installed the wrong replacement airbags.
Joyson said there was no evidence any other automaker was affected by the mistakes. Additionally, the airbag manufacturer said no other vehicles used the same airbags.
And a Nissan recall of Infiniti FX-35 and FX-45 vehicles involved airbag components supplied only to Nissan for those specific Infiniti models.
According to NHTSA, no additional Joyson airbag recalls by other automakers are necessary, thereby closing the investigation.
