Defective air bags found in repaired BMWs, spurring fresh recall

BMW is recalling about 230,000 vehicles in the US after discovering that some may have been fitted with defective Takata air-bag inflators during repairs, such as after a crash in which the devices deployed.

The affected vehicles used air bags manufactured by Petri, a German partsmaker bought by Takata in 2000. If those vehicles needed a replacement air-bag module, Takata PSDI-4 inflators would have been used, BMW spokeswoman Rebecca Kiehne said.

The faulty Takata inflators can explode in a crash and spray vehicle occupants with metal shards. The defect has been linked to at least 17 deaths worldwide and prompted one of