Nissan Motor Co. is expanding a recall of the 2006 Sentra compact car by 45,000 units mainly in the Southern United States because of a defective air bag manufactured by the embattled Takata Corp., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday.
Nissan's U.S. arm told Kyodo News on Friday of a plan to widen the recall mostly in the southern region associated with high humidity and high temperatures believed to be contributing to Takata's air bag problem.
The NHTSA said Monday, "Upon deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture."
In March, a woman was injured by shrapnel from an exploding Takata air bag in Louisiana, prompting Nissan to widen the Sentra recall in addition to some that had already been withdrawn in the high humidity, high temperature area. The Sentra is not marketed in Japan.
Automakers have recalled more than 26 million cars worldwide because of the potentially exploding air bags manufactured by Japanese auto parts maker Takata.