Look out- Fake Chinese Car Airbags.

[James48843]

Got this from one of my MADEINUSA friends:

at Made in USA, Made in America, US, American-Made

A warning about fake Chinese Airbags being sold

[TD="bgcolor: #ccccff, colspan: 3"] Latest from China: Counterfeit Car Airbags

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The latest Chinese import fiasco is tens of thousands of fake car safety airbags!
Airbags are a key safety component in our cars and not only will these not inflate, but per AP, “In one test, a counterfeit bag shot flames and shards of metal shrapnel at a crash dummy instead of inflating.”
The airbags have been installed into many cars as replacements to the factory airbags after the original factory installed ones have already inflated. The airbags fraudulently had car maker logos on them and sold in the secondary market for a fraction of the real airbags.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is recommending that those of us who received new airbags in our vehicles get them checked. Unfortunately, that’s expensive and drivers must pay fees for the replacement of the fake airbags themselves (Thanks China!). The time and expense is painful, but definitely better than experiencing a fake airbag during an accident.
One Chinese national, Dai Zhensong, was arrested in Chattanooga, TN and has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for importing counterfeit airbags. That is positive news, although he was just the tip of the iceberg.
The article in the link below has more details and a video of the airbag shooting flames into a crash dummy. I urge our readers to help spread the word to get this important safety issue checked out.
Link to Chinese Counterfeit Airbag Article
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Be careful out there.


[video=youtube;TSk2JUuQ3j0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TSk2JUuQ3j0#![/video]

More information here, from Autoweek Magazine:


NHTSA finds proliferation of counterfeit airbags

AUTOWEEK:
By: Jake Lingeman on 10/10/2012


The U.S. Department of Transportation’s NHTSA issued a safety warning about counterfeit airbags on Wednesday. The agency has become aware of a problem involving fake airbags used for replacement parts.

NHTSA says the bags can look identical to the real thing. According to NHTSA, malfunctioning can range from non-deployment to—when the airbags do deploy—the expulsion of metal shrapnel. The full scope of the problem is unknown, but estimates say the issue affects less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet. Cars with airbags that have been replaced in the past three years are most at risk.

Consumers who have had their airbags replaced at any place other than a dealership in the past three years should call the customer-care line of the automaker and have their vehicle inspected. NHTSA also says consumers who have purchased a used car should get airbags checked, as well as consumers that bought an airbag for an unusually low price (i.e., under $400).

More:


Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121010/carnews/121019986#ixzz295wms7sF


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http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121010/CARNEWS/121019986