The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is warning used-car owners about dangerous replacement air bag inflators that have been linked to 11 deaths and three severe injuries in the United States.
The latest death occurred Aug. 27 in Dallas, Texas, when an air bag inflator marked DTN60DB ruptured in a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox, NHTSA said. The agency said the crash otherwise should have been survivable.
It was the first known death involving one of the defective inflators in a Chevrolet Equinox. Previous deaths and severe injuries involved Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata vehicles.
The replacement inflators can rupture during a crash instead of properly inflating an air bag, sending metal fragments into vehicle occupants.
Unlike a conventional vehicle recall, owners cannot determine whether their vehicle has one of the inflators by entering its vehicle identification number, or VIN, into a recall database. NHTSA says the aftermarket inflators are not tied to individual VINs, and only an inspection can determine whether a vehicle has one.
NHTSA is urging owners and buyers of used vehicles to check the vehicle’s history for previous air bag deployments, crashes or total-loss events, thefts and repairs at non-certified service centers.
The warning does not apply to vehicles that owners know have never been in a crash or had their air bags replaced under unknown circumstances, according to NHTSA.
Vehicles with those indicators should be inspected by a certified technician at the manufacturer’s dealership or by a reputable independent mechanic. Owners should not attempt to inspect an air bag themselves.
If a DTN60DB inflator is found, NHTSA says the vehicle should not be driven until the inflator is replaced with genuine original equipment parts.
NHTSA banned the importation and sale of the inflators in April after determining they contain a motor vehicle safety defect. The agency says they were likely illegally imported into the United States, and the number of inflators in the country is unknown.
The inflators are marked “DTN,” an abbreviation associated with Chinese manufacturer Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology Co. Ltd. The company has said it did not sell the inflators for installation in U.S. vehicles and that they may be counterfeit.
NHTSA says whether the inflators were made by the company or are counterfeit does not change its determination that inflators marked DTN60DB are defective.