Two Crossed Wires Can Make a Defective Car

Farmington Hills, MIThe very component that could save your life in a serious vehicular crash could fail due to an auto defect involving various Jeep models. The defective automobile has an issue with an airbag control that could fail and 47,000 units of the defective car have been recalled.

There are actually two separate recalls at play here. The first—and the largest—is said to involve 42,469 units of the 2002 and 2003 Jeep Liberty Sport Utility (SUV) due to potential corrosion of the snow belt.

However, while another recall involving defective Jeep products may be smaller, it could carry much more devastating consequences given that the recall involves the airbag system.

This defective car recall involves 4,336 units of the model year 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Commander and Jeep Wrangler. The concern is over wiring in the steering column inherent with the steering column control module (SCCM) that could be reversed, potentially causing a failure of the airbag to deploy as designed in the event of a crash.

It has been reported that in late February of this year a defective SCCM was discovered at a Chrysler instrument panel supplier. The suspect panel was thoroughly checked and was discovered to have a serious flaw impacting the reliable operation of the airbag and, in particular the small part that is ultimately responsible for the airbag properly deploying.

The latter is known as a 'squib connector,' a component located within the airbag inflator mechanism that plays a role in the successful initiation of the airbag deployment process.
If the squib is compromised in any way, the airbag may not deploy as designed.

In this case, close scrutiny of a SCCM at a Chrysler parts supplier on February 25th of this year revealed that wiring leading to the air bag squib connector on the driver's side was reversed. Further investigation confirmed that squib wires are fed to the squib connecter by hand during the manufacturing process and a vision check is used to ensure correct wire color and positioning on the squib connector before soldering can take place.

While it is alleged that the system of vision checks were indeed carried out as required, it was also found that squib wires could be soldered into place even when in the wrong position, if the panel is in 'program' mode.

The defective component in question is said to have been supplied by TRW Automotive Electronics Group of Michigan.

An airbag that does not properly deploy could have a significant impact on an occupant during the rigors of a serious motor vehicle accident. The recalled defective automobiles utilize what is known as multi-stage driver airbags—which suggests for the airbag system to be effective, the deployment must occur in the required sequence. In the case of the defective SCCM, reversed wiring may cause the staged inflation process to fire in reverse order, severely limiting the effectiveness of the airbag system to protect the driver from potential injury in a crash.

A further concern in this auto defect case is that on-board diagnostics are apparently incapable of detecting the problem and as such, the air bag warning indicator will fail to illuminate.

As a result, there is no way for the driver to know there is a defect inherent with the vehicle until it's too late. While today's' vehicles are increasingly complex with improved safety, such complexities also require diligence in the manufacturing process all the way down to the smallest wiring task. A defective automobile may be perfect in every way, except for two small wires that are crossed. Two crossed wires can make a defective car, and can cost an individual serious injury…or even his life.