Chrysler expands air bag recall

Chrysler is bowing to demands from U.S. safety regulators and will add about 179,000 vehicles to a recall for air bags that could explode with too much force.

The expansion covers the Ram pickup from 2003 to 2005 model years, as well as the 2004 and 2005 Dodge Durango, 2005 Chrysler 300 and 2005 Dodge Magnum.

At first Chrysler agreed to replace the passenger air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

But under pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company added more states with high humidity. The new boundaries are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and five U.S. territories.

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The air bags can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel into the passenger compartment.

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