2022 Hyundai Elantra's Seatbelts Could Explode

2022年3月17日上午7:55等 byChase Bierenkoven Recall /Comments

These seatbelts are going out with a bang. Literally.

A recall has been issued for both the2022 Hyundai ElantraandElantra Hybrid. Why? Exploding seatbelts. Thankfully, the number of recalled units remains small, at just 140. Glass half-full and all. Hyundai will be replacing the defective units free of charge.

The cause of all this? Hyundai says it's down to the pretensions in the seatbelt mechanism. These pretensioners are what cause the seatbelt to lock tightly around an occupant in the event of a crash. You've probably accidentally activated them by pulling too hard on a seatbelt. During a collision, a small explosive device helps the belt ratchet down as quickly as possible. As a result of the defect, the units could "deploy abnormally during a crash."

2021-2022 Hyundai Elantra Rear Angle View

The South Korean brand told the NHTSA that it does not know what is causing the issue, only that it is an issue affecting those 140 2022 Elantra and Elantra Hybrid models. As of now at least, theaffordable new Elantra N modelsdo not suffer from this issue. While Hyundai doesn't know now, its statement says a detailed analysis of the defective parts will be conducted once the parts are safely removed from vehicles.

Thankfully, while the cause is unknown, the bad batch of pretensioners has already been identified. Hyundai also details the root incident. One of these explosive pretensioners failed, causing the explosion to shoot metal fragments into a rear passenger's leg. No word yet on how severe that injury was or was not.

Thankfully, all pretensioners in the bad batch are being recalled, just to be safe. Owners can check the NHTSA's website with their VIN numbers to see if they're one of the unlucky 140 Elantra owners subject to the recall.

Should that be the case, owners will receive instructions from Hyundai in May to help the affected get those repairs done.