The defect
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain model year 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla vehicles manufactured December 28, 2001, to May 2, 2004, 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla Matrix vehicles manufactured January 6, 2002, to April 29, 2004, 2003-2004 Avalon vehicles manufactured June 5, 2002, to December 20, 2004, and 2003-2004 Pontiac Vibe vehicles manufactured January 18, 2002, to April 27, 2004. Due to electrical noise, a component in the air bag control module may fail, causing the front air bags, side air bags, and/or seatbelt pretensioners to deploy inadvertently while the vehicle is being operated.
The risk
Inadvertent deployment of the air bags or the seat belt pretensioners increases the risk of an injury or crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify their owners. Pontiac Vibe owners will be notified by GM. Dealers will replace the air bag control module, free of charge. The recall began on August 24, 2015. Toyota owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331. GM issued an interim notification to owners on March 27, 2015. The recall began on August 24, 2015. Pontiac owners may call 1-800-620-7668. Note: This recall supersedes recalls 13V-029 and 14V-147. Vehicles that had a noise filter installed as the remedy for one of those campaigns need to have the air bag control module replaced under this campaign.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by ODI
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| Pontiac Vibe | 2003, 2004 |
| Toyota Avalon | 2003, 2004 |
| Toyota Corolla | 2003, 2004 |
| Toyota Corolla Matrix | 2003, 2004 |
Components: AIR BAGS:FRONTAL
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pontiac Vibe | 2003 | 298 | 8 |
| Pontiac Vibe | 2004 | 266 | 7 |
| Toyota Avalon | 2003 | 293 | 2 |
| Toyota Avalon | 2004 | 205 | 3 |
| Toyota Corolla | 2003 | 720 | 9 |
| Toyota Corolla | 2004 | 477 | 9 |
| Toyota Corolla Matrix | 2003 | 36 | 5 |
| Toyota Corolla Matrix | 2004 | 29 | 5 |
Other air bags recalls in 2015
61 of the 863 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2015 concerned the air bags; Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing filed 245 campaigns in all.
| 15V830000 10 Dec 2015 | General Motors LLC |
| 15V823000 8 Dec 2015 | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| 15V815000 4 Dec 2015 | Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. |
| 15V787000 23 Nov 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V739000 9 Nov 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 15V714000 29 Oct 2015 | Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) |
| 15V711000 27 Oct 2015 | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| 15V695000 23 Oct 2015 | BMW of North America, LLC |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2015