Toyota, Nissan Add 6.6 Million Vehicles to Takata Recall

Toyota Motor Corp. is launching a worldwide recall of about 5 million vehicles, including its best-selling Corolla sedan, to replace Takata Corp. airbag inflators that could explode when activated.

Separately, Nissan Motor Co. is preparing for a June recall of 1.6 million vehicles to address the same Takata inflator problem.

Toyota's callback will replace the front seat airbag inflators in 35 models made between March 2003 and November 2007. The company will buy replacement inflators for the driver's frontal airbag from Japan's Daicel Corp. Takata will supply replacement inflators for the passenger-side airbags.

Toyota says its own analysis of inflators collected from scrapped cars in Japan confirms some of the devices may over time allow moisture to reach their propellants. Takata believes the targeted inflators can degrade if exposed to chronic high temperatures and humidity. Toyota describes the relationship between moisture and the risk of a malfunction as "not known."

Ten carmakers have already recalled about 17 million vehicles since 2008 to replace Takata inflators. The devices have been blamed for five deaths to date, all involving Honda vehicles.