Mercedes cars caught up in new airbag recall

MERCEDES-BENZ has issued a product safety recall for a broad range of current and just-superseded passenger car models for an airbag-related fault that, upon deployment, could see small metal parts injuring occupants of the vehicle.

These are Takata-manufactured airbags but Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific has advised that this call-back is not specifically related to the current compulsory Takata recall underway in Australia.

The compulsory recall relates to inherent design defects in Takata airbags that can lead to propellant degradation and deployment with excessive force, rupturing the airbag inflator housing and allowing shrapnel to shoot out and hit vehicle occupants, potentially injuring or killing them.

With this latest recall, Mercedes says “deployment of the airbags may result in small metal parts becoming dislodged from the airbag gas generator housing, which could injure the occupants of the vehicle”.

A company spokesperson told GoAuto that the defect relates to only one batch of vehicles and that no injuries in Australia or overseas have been reported.

Currently, 78 vehicles have been identified as having the defective airbags, spanning A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, E-Class, GLA, GLC and the Mercedes-AMG GT.

The affected vehicles were available for sale between March 1 and April 30, 2018.

Owners are advised to contact their nearest Mercedes-Benz passenger car dealer to arrange an inspection and repair of the vehicle free of charge.

A VIN list can be found on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Product Safety Australia website, www.productsafety.gov.au.

This website also has a full listing of vehicles affected by the compulsory Takata recall, which includes a variety of older Mercedes-Benz vehicles including the GL, ML and SLK (2006-12), R-Class (2008-13), C-Class (2008-13) and Vito, Viano and Valente (2006-14).

Another recall notice was also issued last week for the current Mercedes-Benz S-Class flagship sedan.

During assembly, two nuts for mounting busbars in the pre-fuse box located in the boot may not have been installed, which could present a fire hazard and, separately, could lead to a failure of components such as the engine or instrument cluster.

The VIN list shows that 45 vehicles have been identified as needing to return to dealerships to have the problem rectified.

They were available for sale between November 1, 2017 and February 28, 2018.