Photo of Ford F-150 courtesy of Ford.

Photo of Ford F-150 courtesy of Ford.

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 650 2017-model year Ford F-150 pickup trucks and Mustang cars in the U.S. because their front-passenger air bag inflators, manufactured by ARC Automotive, might rupture during a crash, the automaker said.

Air bag inflators made by the Tennessee-headquartered automotive supplier have come under increased scrutiny since a woman in the Canadian province of Newfoundland died July 8 after suffering injuries when an ARC air bag inflator exploded in her vehicle during air bag deployment, according to an Associated Press report. The woman's car was a 2009 Hyundai Elantra. 

Investigators have indicated they believe the ARC inflator defect is different than the one behind the Takata Corp. recalls — even though the results are similar. Surprisingly, Takata has assumed a role in this recall as well. It was Takata that alerted Ford about the ARC air bag inflator rupture risk.

“Ford was notified by Takata, a supplier that uses the inflators in airbag modules, of an abnormal deployment of ARC’s passenger airbag inflator during testing conducted at Takata’s engineering facility,” Ford said in a released statement about the recall.

Ford noted that it isn’t aware of any Ford vehicle accidents or injuries associated with the issue.

In addition to the recalled vehicles in the U.S., Ford is also calling back 279 trucks and cars in Canada for the same air bag inflator problem. A total of six vehicles will be recalled in Mexico.

Ford’s reference number for this recall is 17S26.

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