Nissan Recalling 30,000 Vehicles

Nissan Motor Co. is recalling nearly 30,000 vehicles in two separate campaigns to address air bag faults and engine stalls.

One of the two recalls came under U.S. government pressure. The Japanese automaker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration it is recalling 23,531 2011-2012 Nissan Quest minivans to reprogram the vehicle's software to address some engine stalls. Nissan also is recalling 5,777 Infiniti Q45 models to fix side air bags that may not deploy in a crash.

Nissan said the Quest minivans with less than a quarter tank of fuel may stall even before the low-fuel light comes on. Nissan received a complaint on January 18 after it was able to create the incident; it then decided to recall the vehicles.

NHTSA had opened an investigation into the Infiniti air bag issue in December 2008. NHTSA upgraded its investigation to an engineering analysis in July 2009 and Nissan the agency had asked the automaker to recall the vehicles in January. There are no reports of injuries or fatalities related to the air bag issue. Nissan said it has had a voluntary service campaign to fix the air bags of the Infiniti models being recalled. It has fixed 4,400 of the 5,777 vehicles being recalled.

NHTSA has taken a hard line on demanding recalls of vehicles with faulty air bags. In January, NHTSA said it was upgrading an investigation into nearly 390,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs for reports of inadvertent air bag deployments.

NHTSA upgraded its investigation into 386,873 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty models after identifying eighty seven reports of inadvertent deployment of air bags that have resulted in fifty alleged injuries. The injuries include burns, cuts, and bruises to the upper body. About half — forty two of the eighty seven incidents — involved the driver front air bag, and the remaining forty five involved both the driver and passenger front air bags inadvertently deploying without a crash.

Under government pressure, Ford Motor Co. in April agreed to recall 1.2 million more F-150 pickup trucks after more than two hundred reports of sudden, unexpected air bag deployments. In total, Ford recalled about 1.5 million vehicles to address the issue.

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