When your car gets in an accident you sometimes have to replace the airbag.
But Carfax warns that sometimes people are getting recycled airbags, and that can be a problem.
According to Christopher Basso with Carfax, some mechanics might replace your discharged airbag with an airbag from a junk yard or recycling company. Those parts are generally cheaper and could work just fine but he warned that the recycled airbags could also be on a nationwide recall list.
Currently, millions of Takata airbags are on recall order. Some can explode in an accident sending shards of metal at the driver and passengers.
When a car is discarded, their airbags could be resold if they were never deployed. But the driver getting those recalled airbags installed into their own cars may never know their dangerous history.
Basso says 750,000 deployed airbags are replaced annually, some with less costly recycled airbags from scrapped cars. That why, he told NBC 7, people need to ask questions when repairing their cars.
1) Find out if your vehicle's airbags ever needed replacing.
Local
2) Have a mechanic inspect the airbag to help determine the source of the replacement.
3) Insist on original replacement parts, (OEM), or demand to see the parts order form.
4) Get a history report on the vehicle.
5 ) Get a pre-purchase inspection report from a trusted mechanic before you consider buying the car.
