Part Information

Assuming you are concerned about the Takata airbags that have been flooding the media recently.

You can enter your VIN on the Toyota main website (http://www.toyota.com/recall) and they will let you know if you have the suspect airbags noted in the recall.

Other site is the NTHSA website - (https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin) - look under vehicle owners tab and pick recall Look-Up by VIN.

As far as I know, it only affected the 9th gen Corollas (2003+) and just a handful of the later 2002 8th gen models. Earlier 8th gens were not affected. Only way to be sure is to pull the airbags yourself and look up their part numbers. Though, this is generally discouraged for most owner, as you could easily set off the airbag in the process of trying to disconnect it - that point, definitely causing injury to yourself. If you'd have experience in removing and replacing airbags - should be pretty easy to figure out.

According on this article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/business/international/honda-nissan-and-mazda-join-recall-over-faulty-air-bags.html, “the [Takata] manufacturer had also failed to keep adequate records of quality control, making it difficult to identify vehicles with potentially defective air bags and prompting a second round of recalls.”

My Corolla is not on the recall list but it is the same generation as the 2002 Corolla which is on the recall list. I’m trying to find out whether my Corolla airbag has the same manufacture and part as the 2002 Corolla airbag and I agree owners should not be encouraged on pulling the airbags themselves. So far Toyota has not been able let me know if my Corolla has the Takata airbags. Very disappointing.

I understand your concern. Its tough to put this on the dealership to find out the make of the airbag. Like all line manufacturing, they have a number of different vendors supplying parts for the cars. Not unusual for cars made in the same plant to get different brands of components.

What makes this even harder is sometimes a vendor will be the OEM for another brand - ie, Eibach, a well known vendor of suspension components, makes springs for Toyota's TRD line. Same with Brembo and Centric - well know brake manufacturers that make brake rotors for Toyota. Stamping will be identical between the Brembo and Toyota OEM rotor, with only the labeling on the box it came from telling you if it is Toyota or Brembo branded.

Fortunately, most of the Toyota airbags seem to be restricted to certain generations from a specific plant. Of course, cannot rule out the possibility of a Takata part making its way into another model year or make - from either the plant or from a port installed option / local dealership stock.

Only way to find out for sure is to remove the airbag and see if it says Takaka on it. Even if it is stamped Denso, there should be a manufacturing date and batch number - can potentially used to make sure this isn't a rebadged part.

If you are feeling really adventurous - there are a number of videos online that walk you through the airbag removal process. Pretty sure that there is a write-up on this forum as well. Though I will caveat that this could be extremely dangerous, so do this at your own risk. Can always pay a shop to do this for you - shouldn't take more than handful of minutes to remove it - so you are just playing straight labor.