DETROIT (Reuters) - Subaru of America said it is recalling about 5,000 older model cars with passenger-side air bag inflators made by Takata Corp that may rupture and break into metal fragments that could harm passengers, the automaker and U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.
Subaru, a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries (T:7270), said it
will recall model year 2003-2005 Legacy, Outback and Baja models as well as 2004-2005 Impreza that are or ever were registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A Subaru of America spokesman said the company has not found defective air bag inflators in any of its vehicles in the area involved in the recall and is not aware of any injuries related to this issue.
Subaru is conducting the recall "out of an abundance of caution" the spokesman said.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in June began asking automakers with Takata air bag inflators in their vehicles to recall cars for inspection in the limited region because high humidity may cause defective inflators to malfunction.
A letter from NHTSA to Subaru dated Monday shows that cars that are brought in for inspection will have air bag inflators replaced. Also, it said, engineers will gather the older inflators for analysis.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Grant McCool)