HÀ NỘI — Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) is recalling more than 20,000 Vios and Yaris sedans to check and replace the airbag inflator module of the front passenger airbag.

The recall programme, which was launched on Saturday, covers 18,138 locally assembled Vios cars produced from January 5, 2009 to December 29, 2012, and 1,877 imported Yaris cars produced from September 1, 2009 to August 31, 2012.

It will start from August 28 at the Toyota dealership network nationwide. This programme is covered by the global Recall Programme of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) for different models.

According to Toyota’s global announcement, the concerned vehicles are equipped with front passenger air bag inflators, which, following a Defect Information Report submitted by Takata in April 2013 in certain countries, could have been assembled with improperly manufactured propellant wafers. 

Improperly manufactured propellant wafers could cause the inflator to rupture and the front passenger air bag to deploy abnormally in a crash, increasing the risk of injury to the occupant.

In addition, in certain models equipped with single-stage passenger air bag inflators, such inflators may have been manufactured in such a way that there is potential for the intrusion of moisture over time. The cause of such moisture intrusion and the relationship, if any, to the risk of inflator rupture is not known.

TMV will check and replace the airbag inflator module of the front passenger airbag of affected vehicles at no cost. Total time of the checking and replacing is some 0.5-3 hours depending on each model and will be carried out at the Toyota dealership network nationwide.

The airbags on the driver’s side were supplied by another supplier (not Takata company) and will not be checked under this programme.

For further information of the programme and to confirm if the vehicle is on the affected list, the customer may access the TMV official website at www.toyota.com.vn or directly contact TMV dealers nationwide.

For the Yaris, which are not imported and not officially distributed by TMV, if request is received for the campaign from customers, TMV will contact TMC to confirm information.

Once TMV gets official approval from TMC, it will replace the airbag inflator module following standard procedures of the campaign at no cost. — VNS