UPDATE2: Airbag Flaw Prompts Carmakers to Recall 3.4 Million Vehicles

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda say they will recall a combined 3.4 million vehicles worldwide to fix airbag inflators that could deploy with too much force during a crash.

Tokyo-based Takata Corp., which made the defective parts, says some them also were used by BMW and General Motors.

The recalls involve front-seat passenger frontal airbag modules. Their inflators may contain propellant wafers that were formed with insufficient compaction force, according to Takata. The company says the flawed wafers could generate excessive pressure when ignited, thus causing the inflator to rupture.

Honda tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the defect could spray metal fragments toward the windshield or into the passenger footwell.

Toyota's recall of 1.73 million vehicles includes 580,000 units in North America and 490,000 units in Europe. Among the models affected are Corolla compacts, Matrix small crossovers and Camry midsize sedans built between November 2000 and March 2004. Other vehicles in the U.S. portion of Toyota's campaign are the Toyota Sequoia large SUV, Tundra large pickup truck, Pontiac Vibe small crossover and Lexus SC sport coupe.

Honda is recalling more than 1.1 million vehicles, including 561,400 in the U.S.

Nissan expects its campaign to cover about 480,000 vehicles, with more than 265,000 of those units in the U.S. Affected models are Nissan Sentra and Maxima sedans and Pathfinder SUV and Infiniti I35 large sedans, QX4 large SUVs and FX sporty crossovers.

Mazda says its 45,000-unit campaign will include certain 2003-2004 model year Mazda6 sedans built in Michigan and 2004 model RX-8 sports cars made in Japan. The company estimates only 149 of the cars were sold in the U.S.

The companies say they are aware of several incidents involving airbags that deployed with too much force but know of no injuries or fatalities.

Takata says most of the devices were made between 2000 and 2002 at its facilities in Moses Lake, Washington, and Monclova, Mexico.