Pontiac Air Bags: Frontal

Pontiac is recalling about 1,006,849 vehicles over a problem with the air bags. Inadvertent deployment of the air bags or the seat belt pretensioners increases the risk of an injury or crash.

Campaign
15V043000
Manufacturer
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing
Reported
28 January 2015
Vehicles
1,006,849
Built between
Dec 2001 – Dec 2004
Models
4
Recall type
Vehicle
Initiated by
NHTSA investigation
Owners notified
24 August 2015
Repaired
29%
Unrepaired
669,890

Does this affect my vehicle?

This recall covers vehicles built between December 2001 and December 2004. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.

  • 2003-2004 Pontiac VibeBuilt January 2002 to April 2004
  • 2003-2004 Toyota AvalonBuilt June 2002 to December 2004
  • 2003-2004 Toyota CorollaBuilt December 2001 to May 2004
  • 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla MatrixBuilt January 2002 to April 2004

Repair progress

669,890 of 1,006,849 vehicles in this recall had still not been repaired as of Q4 2016.

29% repaired — 289,361 of 1,006,849 reported

Owners not reachable
47,598

Manufacturers file these figures with NHTSA each quarter. Vehicles the manufacturer could not trace, or that have been scrapped or exported, are counted separately and are not included in the unrepaired figure.

What the defect is

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain model year 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla vehicles manufactured December 28, 2001, to May 2, 2004, 2003-2004 Toyota Corolla Matrix vehicles manufactured January 6, 2002, to April 29, 2004, 2003-2004 Avalon vehicles manufactured June 5, 2002, to December 20, 2004, and 2003-2004 Pontiac Vibe vehicles manufactured January 18, 2002, to April 27, 2004. Due to electrical noise, a component in the air bag control module may fail, causing the front air bags, side air bags, and/or seatbelt pretensioners to deploy inadvertently while the vehicle is being operated.

What could happen

Inadvertent deployment of the air bags or the seat belt pretensioners increases the risk of an injury or crash.

What gets fixed

Toyota will notify their owners. Pontiac Vibe owners will be notified by GM. Dealers will replace the air bag control module, free of charge. The recall began on August 24, 2015.

Timeline

  1. Vehicles builtDecember 2001 to December 2004
  2. Recall reported to NHTSA28 January 2015
  3. Owners notified24 August 2015
  4. Latest repair reportQ4 2016 — 29% repaired

Your rights

A safety recall repair is free. Under US federal law the manufacturer must fix a safety defect at no cost to you — no charge for parts, labor or diagnosis — whether or not you are the original owner. A dealer cannot charge you for recall work, and cannot require you to have bought the vehicle from them.

That entitlement is not unlimited. It applies where the vehicle was first sold less than 15 years before the recall was announced — 5 years for tires. Past that a manufacturer may still do the repair free of charge, and many do, but they are no longer obliged to. This recall was reported on 28 January 2015.

To arrange the repair, contact any franchised dealer for the brand. If a dealer refuses the work or tries to charge for it, you can report that to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/recalls or on 1-888-327-4236.

Manufacturer contact

Toyota owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331. GM issued an interim notification to owners on March 27, 2015. The recall began on August 24, 2015. Pontiac owners may call 1-800-620-7668. Note: This recall supersedes recalls 13V-029 and 14V-147. Vehicles that had a noise filter installed as the remedy for one of those campaigns need to have the air bag control module replaced under this campaign.

Official source

Recalling manufacturer
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing
Recall initiated by
ODI

Everything on this page — the models listed, the build dates and the repair figures — comes from the manufacturer's filing to NHTSA and describes the vehicle line as a whole, not any individual car. Only the manufacturer can confirm whether a specific vehicle is affected, and whether its recall work has already been carried out. Check yours by VIN and read the official notice at nhtsa.gov/recalls.

Additional notes

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

Check your own vehicle

This page describes the recall, not any one car. To see which recalls cover a specific vehicle, search by make, model and year.

A VIN lookup here identifies your vehicle and shows recalls issued for that make, model and year. It cannot tell you what is still open on your individual car - only the manufacturer knows that. Search by VIN instead, or check your VIN at nhtsa.gov for whether a recall is still open on your individual car.

Same component

Same brand