The 2006 Toyota Tundra has 5 recalls, the most serious being multiple Takata airbag inflator defects where the passenger frontal airbag can rupture and send metal fragments into the cabin, risking serious injury or death.
The frontal airbag inflator issue appears across several filings covering different production periods and geographic registrations, but the danger is the same in each case: in a crash, the inflator can explode rather than inflate cleanly, turning the airbag module into a source of shrapnel rather than protection. One filing specifically applies to vehicles originally sold or registered in high-humidity areas including Florida, Gulf Coast states, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and several U.S. territories, where moisture accelerates the inflator's deterioration. The other filing covers vehicles based on manufacture date regardless of where they were registered. There is also a side curtain airbag concern: those bags can deploy without a crash, which can startle or strike an occupant unexpectedly. On the interior side, certain vehicles equipped with aftermarket heated seats face a separate fire risk. The copper heating element woven into the seat cushion can short circuit if the element is damaged, raising the possibility of a fire starting inside the cabin.
