Toyota recalling 3.4m cars

Toyota is recalling about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide over the suspected malfunctioning of airbags, the carmaker said on Wednesday.
“The recall, including 2.9 million vehicles in the US, involves the Corolla, Corolla Matrix, Avalon and Avalon HV models in North America, Central and South America,” Toyota said.
No cars are being recalled this time in Japan and Europe.
The affected vehicles may have an electronic control unit which may not have adequate protection against certain “electrical noise” interference, a Toyota spokeswoman in Tokyo said.
“This could lead to incomplete deployment or non-deployment of the airbags and also hamper the operation of seat belt pretensioners,” she said.
The pretensioner tightens and reduces slack in seat belts to protect occupants from rapidly moving forward in the event of a crash.
For the involved vehicles, Toyota will install a noise filter between the airbag control module and its wire harness, it said.
dpa/NAN.