Airbag Recall Affects More Than 18,000 Jeep Wranglers

By Chris Chase

Oct 17, 2016

Summary

Airbag sensor wiring could become detached in a crash

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced a recall of more than 18,000 of its Jeep Wrangler SUV to fix airbag impact sensors that could fail to deploy airbags in a crash.

In these vehicles, Transport Canada says the headlights could rotate during a frontal impact, which would cause the wiring to the nearby impact sensors to detach before they have a chance to tell the airbags to deploy.

The result, naturally, could be front-seat occupants sustaining more serious injuries than they would with properly functioning airbags. Jeep has not yet determined a fix for the affected models, sold in 2015 and 2016.

Meet the Author

As a child, Chris spent most of his time playing with toy cars in his parents’ basement or making car sounds while riding his bicycle. Now he's an award-winning Algonquin College Journalism grad who has been playing with real cars that make their own noises since the early 2000s.