Nissan North America has announced that it is expanding an April 2013 recall of 2001-'03 vehicles with defective Takata airbags, according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Nissan added approximately 228,000 more vehicles in North America to its previous global recall of 480,000 vehicles for a front passenger airbag that could rupture.
The automaker was not able to offer exact U.S. numbers on the expanded recall.
Dealers are being instructed to replace the airbag inflator in the affected cars for an updated one, free of charge, Nissan said.
Nissan is also conducting a limited regional recall for certain vehicles originally sold in or currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands and equipped with Takata airbag inflators, according to NHTSA's report.
Nissan is currently in the process of confirming the affected vehicles, based on recently obtained information from Takata.
The recall includes: the 2002-'03 Nissan Sentra, 2001-'03 Infiniti I30 and I35, 2002-'03 Infiniti QX4 and 2003 Infiniti FX.
This action is part of a larger one that was revealed on June 23 by a number of the biggest automakers in the world for recalls or regional field actions linked to airbag supplier Takata.
The action came as a result of an investigation conducted by the NHTSA.
BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota have all sent the NHTSA notifications "that they are conducting limited regional recalls to address a possible safety defect involving Takata-brand airbag inflators."
The action "is influenced by a NHTSA investigation into six reports of airbag inflator ruptures, all of which occurred in Florida and Puerto Rico," NHTSA said. "Based on the limited data available at this time, NHTSA supports efforts by automakers to address the immediate risk in areas that have consistently hot, humid conditions over extended periods of time," the agency said this week in a statement.
The action will begin sometime this July.
Owners with more questions can contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.
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