Close to 60,000 Toyota vehicles are being recalled as a result of airbag problems, the Japan-based automaker announced on Wednesday.
Toyota’s U.S. arm said Wednesday that it is recalling about 16,880 Avalon sedans and about 41,630 Camry sedans, as the airbags on both cars may not deploy properly. The affected vehicles are all from the 2016 model year, and come with a system that may activate or deactivate the front passenger airbags, depending on an occupant’s weight. Some of the vehicles may have front passenger and knee airbags that might not even deploy due to issues with the system’s calibration.
“There is a possibility that some vehicles may not have received proper OCS calibration during the vehicle manufacturing process,” Toyota explained. “With the improper calibration, under some conditions, the front-passenger airbag and the front-passenger knee airbag may not deploy as designed in a crash, increasing the risk of an injury to a front-seat passenger.”
Toyota was clearly tight-lipped when pressed about the issue by automotive research site Edmunds . “We’ve found there are many different sources of information with varying degrees of reliability, so it is difficult to know the existence or exact number of times this condition has occurred,” said a company spokeswoman, who said Toyota will not be providing any specifics just yet.
Owners of affected vehicles will be notified by mail, while the recall is expected to kick off next month. Toyota will recalibrate affected airbag systems at no extra cost.
No further information on the Toyota recall was posted on the official website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).