November 18, 2021 UPDATE – Nissan (OTCMKTS: NSANY) has remedied Nissan Sentra airbag issues in 691 models including the 2003 Nissan Sentra with no models being deemed unreachable or being removed from the recall.

Franklin, TN – October 28, 2021  – Nissan (OTCMKTS: NSANY) has recalled 3,930 Sentra compact cars built with Takata airbag inflators that could explode and injure or kill the occupants of the vehicle with “sharp metal fragments.” This acted as another installment of recalls following the 2020 Nissan and Infiniti recall of malfunctioning airbags. So far the infamous recall – that has encompassed multiple manufacturers including and is the largest one in history – has seen 27 fatalities and at least 250 injuries.

This latest round includes 2002-2006 Nissan Sentra cars and concerns the front passenger airbag (part #985614Z60A).

Recall summary

This recall serves to correct a prior Nissan recall of Takata airbags conducted in 2015.

During that recall, dealers misidentified the types of airbag inflators on some of the recalled vehicles. As a result, these dangerous airbags were not removed. 

According to recall documents, such an error resulted in an injury in 2018, when a misidentified airbag’s inflator exploded, prompting an investigation by the automaker.

Continuing history of recalls

Automakers have been issuing ever-expanding recalls of Takata airbags for seven years, with 100 million inflators recalled worldwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has overseen the removal of approximately 63 million Takata airbag inflators in the US, including a recently ordered recall of 5.9 million General Motors vehicles equipped with them.

Read more about what’s wrong with Takata airbags here.

Repair

Nissan dealers will inspect and replace the airbag, if necessary, with one manufactured by a different supplier. Owners will be notified by mail starting Jan 5, 2021, but parts are already available. Nissan is recommending that owners do not allow passengers to sit in the front passenger seat until the car has been serviced. 

If you are uncomfortable driving your recalled Sentra, Nissan will pay to have the vehicle towed to the dealer. Customers may request this by calling Consumer Affairs at 1 (888) 737-9511.

Is your vehicle part of this recall?

Nearly 4,000 vehicles are included in this Nissan Takata Airbag recall. As of April 9 – the last date for which information was available – only 357 airbags had been replaced. To see if your airbag still needs to be replaced, use MotorSafety’s free vehicle recall lookup tool.

Note: June 8, 2021

We have noticed a large number of readers are interested in this recall. For that reason, we have updated the completion rate of this recall in the last paragraph to reflect the most up-to-date information.