Generally, when there is a moderate to severe crash, a signal is sent from the air bag system's electronic control unit to an inflator within the air bag module. An igniter in the inflator starts a chemical reaction that produces a harmless gas, which inflates the air bag within the blink of an eye – or less than 1/20th of a second.Checked 2026-08-14
Air bag inflator
The part inside an air bag module that makes the gas, and the part the Takata recalls are about.
Also called: inflator · airbag inflator · air bag module · gas generator
What it means
Definition
NHTSA sets out the sequence: when there is a moderate to severe crash, a signal is sent from the air bag system's electronic control unit to an inflator within the air bag module, and an igniter in the inflator starts a chemical reaction that produces a harmless gas, which inflates the air bag in less than a twentieth of a second. The inflator is therefore not the bag — it is the charge that fills it. That distinction is why a recall can replace a part without replacing the bag.
Why a buyer cares
What it changes
Inflator recalls are issued against specific vehicles and answered by VIN, not by make or model year, so the only reading that applies to one car is the one taken against that car's number.
In practice
Where you meet it
In recall letters and in the result of a VIN lookup, usually naming an inflator rather than an air bag.
Two things that look alike
Not the same as
The air bag is the fabric that inflates; the inflator is the sealed metal part behind it that generates the gas.
Read next
Related terms
Safety recall
Action taken when a manufacturer or NHTSA finds a vehicle creates an unreasonable safety risk or fails a federal standard.
Open recall check (by VIN)
Entering a car's 17-character VIN in a recall tool to see whether a recall remedy is still outstanding on that exact vehicle.
Seat belt pretensioner
The part of a seat belt that tightens it at the moment of a crash, and then has to be replaced.
Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)
The 17-character code the manufacturer assigns to one specific vehicle.
Where it shows up
Related problem files
Open investigation
ARC airbag inflators — an unfinished regulatory case
NHTSA decided in 2023 that around 51 million airbag inflators made by ARC and Delphi contain a safety defect. ARC disputes it. Three years on there is no final decision and no industry recall — about a million units have been recalled voluntarily, roughly two percent of the population. For a buyer that produces an unusual situation: a car can contain one of these and nothing anywhere will tell you.
Safety recall
Takata airbag inflator rupture
The airbag fires and the metal canister behind it breaks apart, sending fragments into the cabin. NHTSA has confirmed 28 deaths in the United States and at least 400 alleged injuries. Around 67 million inflators across 19 manufacturers were recalled; as of NHTSA's last published total, 17 million had not been repaired. Some vehicles are still under a do-not-drive warning. On any car built before about 2018, this is the first check, not one of many.
Where this comes from
Sources
The combination of time, temperature fluctuations, and humidity contribute to the breakdown of the PSAN propellant in the inflators. This breakdown can cause the propellant to burn too quickly, which creates more pressure than the inflator can withstand.Checked 2026-08-14
No count of recalled inflators is given here. The figures NHTSA publishes are tied to a phase of the campaign and move as it proceeds, and a number frozen into a definition would read as current when it is not.