Chrysler Recall: 300,000 Minivans Recalled For Air Bag Defect

Brett Emison

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Chrysler has recalled more than 367,000 Dodge and Chrysler minivans because of a defect that can cause air bags to deploy unexpectedly and without warning. This is the second recall of the popular minivans for this same problem.

Dodge and Chrysler minivans recalled include:

• 2008 Chrysler Town and Country

• 2008 Chrysler Voyager

• 2008 Dodge Caravan

Water from the minivans’ air conditioner can leak onto electronic chips in the occupant restraint control module that controls the air bags creating a potential fault or short. The air bag light on the dashboard may be illuminated and the electronic fault can cause the air bags to fire. Even though many of the faulty air conditioner units have been replaced, moisture may have damaged the chip circuit boards and compromised their performance.

When air bags work properly, they can prevent injuries and save lives. However, defective air bags can be particularly dangerous to vehicle occupants. There are four primary ways a defective air bag can fail:

• No air bag deployment. This occurs during an accident or collision in which the air bag should fire and deploy, but does not. This leaves the occupant unprotected by the air bag during the crash.
• Late air bag deployment. This occurs during an accident or collision in which the air bag does not deploy in time to protect the occupant. In this situation, the occupant is not protected by the air bag and may even suffer additional injuries from the air bag itself.
• Aggressive air bag deployment. This occurs during an accident or collision in which the air bag deploys at a proper time, but with excessive force that causes the air bag to injure, rather than protect, the occupant.
• Premature air bag deployment. This occurs where the air bag fires without (or before) an accident or collision.

Read more about the Chrysler minivan recall:

• Chrysler recalls 376,000 minivans for air bag defect [Fred Meier at USA Today]
• Chrysler Recalling 299,718 Minivans to Fix Airbags [Jonathan Welsh at WSJ]
• Chrysler recalls nearly 300,000 minivans [John Crawley at Reuters]
• Chrysler recalling 300,000 minivans for airbag problem [Peter Valdes-Dapena at CNN Money]
• Chrysler recalls 300K ’08 minivans over airbag issue [AP via Chicago Tribune]
• Chrysler Recalls About 300,000 Minivans for Air-Bag Defect [Angela Greiling Keane at Bloomberg]

[More on Air Bag Defects]

(c) Copyright 2011 Brett A. Emison