Dearborn, MI — February 04, 2016 — In a continuation of the Takata airbag recalls, Ford is recalling 361,692 vehicles equipped with the potentially dangerous airbags. The recall includes 2004-2006 Ford Rangers.
Recall summary
As a chronology document from Ford notes, a tenth death was recently connected to the inflator issue after a 52-year-old man from South Carolina was struck by shrapnel from the exploding airbag inflator canister. While the root cause of the possible defects in these vehicles is not known, the source says that driver-side airbag inflators could rupture in a crash after “excessive internal pressure.” Owners are instructed to take their vehicles to the nearest dealer to have the inflator replaced. The vehicles included in this recall were manufactured as far back as March 24, 2003.
“On January 22, 2016, Ford participated in a vehicle inspection coordinated by NHTSA’s Special Crash Investigation team and observed an inflator anomaly in this vehicle,” this statement reads. “NHTSA requested that Ford file a defect notification based on a defect notification filed by Takata.”
The document notes that Takata had previously tested more than 1,940 airbag inflators “without incident” for vehicles in the 2004 and 2005 model year ranges.
The repair
Ford will notify owners included in this recall beginning March 7. The dealer notification date was scheduled for January 26. The recalled vehicles will receive an “interim repair”⏤essentially the same Takata airbag, but not as old, so less of a risk⏤and will eventually be replaced with an entirely different airbag altogether.
Is your vehicle part of the recall?
Over 360,000 Ford Rangers were originally part of this recall. As of July 28, 2017, only 528 cars had gotten an “interim” airbag installed. On December 11, 2017, the final repair became available. As of April 9, 2021 – the last date information was available – 193,653 airbags had been replaced. To see if your car still needs to be repaired, use MotorSafety’s free lookup tool.
