During the fall of 2011, Chrysler LLC and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began receiving complaints regarding the Jeep Liberty and its air bags. In September, 39 owners stated, seven to the NHTSA and 32 to the automaker, that in both 2002 and 2003 model year SUVs, the systems deployed when there had not been an accident. As of now, that number has jumped up to 87 and there have been 50 alleged injuries because of the issue. Because of this, an investigation by the NHTSA and Chrysler is currently underway.
According to the NHTSA, an electrical over stress condition inside the circuit that controls the air bags deployment might be the root of the problem. Chrysler is looking into the Occupant Restraint Control module to find the source of the over stress and is fairly confident that any Liberty built after March 19, 2003 should be free of the issue. This still leaves 386,873 Jeeps at risk, according to Autoblog.com. Until the automaker can track down the real cause of the bad air bags, a full-on recall will have to wait.
Source: NHTSA & Autoblog.com
