Plano, TX — May 13, 2016 — The Occupation Classification System in several thousand Toyota sedans could make it hard for regular air bag deployment, according to a new press release. Autoblog quoted the statement, which mentioned that multiple airbags in each of the affected vehicles may not function correctly in the event of a crash. As of April 13, the manufacturer is reaching out to owners to keep them informed while recall actions continue.
The recall will include 58,510 total vehicles, 41,630 of which are Camry sedans and 16,880 of which are Avalon autos. Both models are from the 2016 model year, and could fail to engage the general front passenger airbag and the front passenger knee airbags.
If the OCS in these vehicles were not properly calibrated, the OCS could keep airbags restrained when they should be deployed. Fixing this issue will require dealers to re-calibrate the OCS for more accurate detection.
Other automakers have struggled with this issue in recent years. In 2014, Nissan recalled 989,701 vehicles for a similar problem in several car models. That recall only concerned the front passenger seat airbag, and resulted in at least two field incidents, according to Edmunds.com, although there were no fatalities connected to the issue, at least at the time of the company’s statement.
More recently, Mercedes-Benz announced a recall for unexpected airbag deployment, although this instance was due to wiring harness problems, not the OCS. It also affected far fewer vehicles than the other two examples, with only 888 cars from two different model types recalled.
These SUVs have the 2016 model year and were built between last June/July and November. Fixing this issue requires dealers to replace the harnesses and inspect them afterwards as necessary. The same issue could also stall affected vehicles.
