Five Million Faulty Continental Airbags Trigger Massive Recall

Continental Automotive Systems has admitted to installing potentially faulty airbag control computers in about 5 million cars.

In the affected vehicles, moisture can get inside of the airbag control module, eventually causing the power supply to fail. If the power supply is corrupted, the airbags may not inflate in a crash, or they may deploy without a crash at all.

Continental will now contact all of the automakers who are affected by this recall, with some of the affected vehicles dating back to 2006. Honda knows of two injuries related to the issue.

This comes while automotive supplier Takata is embroiled in a massive faulty airbag recall which has been linked to at least 10 deaths and many injuries. In that case, 24-million U.S. vehicles are being recalled.

SEE ALSO: Toyota Issues Another Massive Recall for Takata Airbags

Continental first became aware of the issue in 2008, when a faulty control unit from a Mercedes-Benz vehicle was analyzed. Then in 2011, Mercedes and Fiat Chrysler reported inadvertent airbag deployments, while last year, Honda reported two airbag non-deployments in 2008 Honda Accords.

Honda and Fiat Chrysler announced new recalls on Wednesday and Thursday to cover their vehicles, while Mercedes recalled its affected vehicles last year.

Of the total of five million vehicles affected, Continental says that between 1.5 and 2 million of them are in the U.S. Volvo Trucks along with Mazda vehicles will also be affected by this recall. Each brand is currently investigating.

As of now, around 600,000 vehicles in the U.S. have actually been recalled, though that number is set to still grow.

So far, the confirmed affected vehicles include:

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