The agency has said inflators in about 49 million vehicles from 13 manufacturers are at risk of exploding and hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers.of nearly 50 million air bag inflators and will investigate further after the auto industry raised questions about whether all of the inflators are defective.
But in a document posted Wednesday in the Federal Register and dated Dec. 13, the agency said it considered comments on a decision from January seeking the recall. The auto industry pointed to technical and engineering differences between ARC inflators in vehicles made by different manufacturers. The comments also raised manufacturing-process variations at different plants that made the ARC inflators.
The agency said that in the coming weeks it will send more information request letters to ARC, vehicle manufacturers and air bag-module manufacturing companies. In addition, the agency said 23 inflators have ruptured in testing with causes common to the inflators that blew apart in the field. Also, four inflators have ruptured outside the U.S., killing at least one person, the agency said.