Mitsubishi recalls Lancer sedans with Takata air bags

DETROIT: Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp is recalling older model Lancer sedans made with Takata Corp air bags, increasing to nine the number of automakers that have said they will recall vehicles with Takata air bags sold in the United States.

In a filing posted on Friday with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mitsubishi said it will conduct a limited recall of model year 2004 and 2005 Lancer sedans with Takata passenger-side air bags that have inflators that may cause them to open with too much force.

"In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the passenger-side frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking and potentially seriously injuring the vehicle occupants," the NHTSA said on its website.

In the past five years, about 12 million vehicles with Takata air bags or inflators have been recalled.

Also on Friday, the Japanese auto parts supplier announced a "special loss" of about 45 billion yen ($440 million) because of the problem.

Like most of those automakers, Mitsubishi, at NHTSA's request, limited the recall to a portion of the United States and US territories.

"Due to NHTSA's belief that humidity is a contributing factor to the inflator condition at issue, the (recall) will be limited to affected vehicles that are registered in, or were originally sold in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands," Mitsubishi said in one of its letters to NHTSA.

Some of the automakers have expanded that to include other warm-weather states or the entire country. Mitsubishi said it knew of no crashes, injuries or deaths related to Lancer sedans with Takata air bags. It said that it has not found any safety defect on its own and is recalling the cars because it is working "in good faith" with NHTSA.

Earlier this week, BMW said it would recall 1.6 million 3 Series cars with Takata front passenger-side air bags. A Mitsubishi spokesman said that the company is "still investigating" how many Lancer sedans will be involved in the recall.