Hyundai has widened a recall for so-called ‘exploding seatbelts’ to 239,000 vehicles. Model-year 2019-2022 Accents and 2021-2023 Elantras are the targets of the recall.
The recall revolves around seatbelt pretensioners that can explode in the event of an accident.
Seatbelt pretensioners are meant to use an explosion to retract rapidly. However, these particular pretensioners may be exploding uncontrollably (giggle stifled) and sending shrapnel flying.
Hyundai is aware of three such incidents happening thus far, two in the U.S. and one in Singapore. The design appears to be at fault, though Hyundai says that it has not seen the same problem in other models. That may have something to do with how the structure of these models performs in a collision.
Hyundai is in the process of reaching out to the owners of the affected vehicles.
Hyundai plans to replace the defective pretensioners with a modified design that includes a pressure relief valve. This valve will, of course, be designed to keep the device from exploding when a crash occurs.
[Image: Hyundai]
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