The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE21-010) to investigate complaints of malfunctions with the driver frontal air bags in certain Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles.

The ODI has received fifteen consumer complaints about certain vehicles experiencing an airbag warning light illumination and/or a failure of the airbag to deploy during an accident with significant frontal damage. Nine of the consumer complaints say the air bag malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) was illuminated and six of the incidents had significant frontal damage with failure to deploy the airbags.

A TSB, issued in March 2021, addresses air bag MIL illumination accompanied by diagnostic trouble codes B0001-1B or B0012-0D. It also reports rust particles in the connection terminal interface of the driver airbag inflator as the cause of the airbag MIL illumination. Illumination of the airbag MIL under these circumstances may result in a non-deployment of the driver’s airbag during a frontal collision and increased risk of injury to the driver.

The vehicles under investigation include:

ODI have opened this preliminary investigation to determine the scope and severity of the potential problem and to fully assess the potential safety-related issues. If the investigation results in a recall, an estimated 749,312 vehicles could be affected.