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Exploding Seatbelt Pretensioners Prompts Hyundai Elantra and Kia Sorento Recalls

Last month, Hyundai called back the Accent in the U.S. for seatbelt pretensioners that may explode. The South Korean automaker and sister company Kia have announced two more recalls over the same issue, safety campaigns that involve the 2022 Elantra and 2022 Sorento.
2022 Hyundai Elantra 14 photos
Photo: Hyundai
2022 Hyundai Elantra2022 Hyundai Elantra2022 Hyundai Elantra2022 Hyundai Elantra2022 Hyundai Elantra2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV2022 Kia Sorento PHEV
Back in September 2021, the Office of Defects Investigation notified Hyundai Motor America of a crash involving an Elantra where the driver-side pretensioner deployed abnormally, causing metal fragments to enter the rear cabin, injuring the rear passenger’s leg. According to the U.S. federal watchdog, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration learned of this incident from a law firm representing the vehicle’s owner.

ODI therefore, requested Hyundai’s assessment of the incident. Come October 2021, the cause of the abnormal deployment was deemed unknown. Hyundai learned of a second incident on an Accent in Puerto Rico in December 2021, which led to yet another investigation. A third incident was reported in February 2022, this time involving a 2022 Avante in Singapore where the pretensioner caused unspecified injuries to the rear passenger.

Hyundai and the supplier, Samsong of South Korea, discovered that the faulty pretensioner is different than the lots covered in previous recalls. Based on this information, the peeps at Hyundai Motor America informed Kia of their findings because the 2022 Sorento crossover uses pretensioners from the suspect lot. In the Sorento’s case, no incidents were identified.

Hyundai will call back no fewer than 140 units of the 2022 model year Elantra and Elantra Hybrid manufactured from July 5th, 2021 through November 22nd, 2021. As for Kia, make that 213 units of the Sorento Hybrid and Sorento PHEV produced between July 12th, 2021 and July 28th, 2021.

Owners of the subject Elantras and Sorentos will be notified by first-class mail with instructions to bring their vehicles to a dealership in May 2022. The remedy component is from a different seatbelt pretensioner production lot, which is expected to deploy as intended in the event of an accident.
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 Download: Elantra and Sorento pretensioner recall (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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