Mazda Motor Corporation extends the Airbag Recall Campaign on certain Mazda6 and Mazda RX-8 vehicles

Mazda has announced a formal global recall covering a wider manufacturing period in order to place the highest priority on the safety of Mazda customers. This recall follows investigative recalls by Mazda in Japan and North America for three different types of Takata Corporation manufactured inflators and although no cases of abnormal deployment or dangerous flaws have been found in any Mazda vehicles in the course of the investigative recall; the concern had deemed an extended formal recall campaign necessary.

To date it has been recorded that an estimated 8000 units are affected in South Africa. Affected units are Mazda6 and RX-8 vehicles produced from 2003 to 2007 with VIN numbers starting with JM6GG or JMZSE. These include Mazda6 and Mazda RX-8 vehicles equipped with the “PSDI-4” driver-side air bag inflator, the “SDI-160” driver side air bag inflator, or the “SPI” passenger-side air bag inflator.

The recall is due to an inappropriate production condition and storage of the propellant in the inflator. The density of the propellant may be insufficient on the inflator for the passenger-sideairbag. This might cause the propellant to ignite abnormally at the time of airbag deployment and potentially result in extremely high inner pressure of the inflator causing a rupture of the inflator case.  In a case of a rupture, the airbag might not deploy as designed and may lead to passenger injury.

Mazda Southern Africa will conduct a repair procedure to replace the driver-side air bag and passenger-side air bag inflator with an improved unit on the possibly affected vehicles.

Although the number of affected vehicles will be subject to further review and may change, Mazda SA urges all owners with possibly affected Mazda6 and Mazda RX-8 vehicles to contact the Mazda SA Dealer Network or the Mazda SA Customer Care Centre on 0860 069 700 or email customercare@mazda.co.za.