(Bloomberg) -- The safety crisis plaguing the global automotiveindustry deepened as Japan’s three biggest carmakers said theywould recall more than 11 million additional vehicles because offaulty air bags that can shoot shrapnel at motorists.

Honda Motor Co. is expanding its recalls by 4.89 millionvehicles, bringing the total called back by the company to about19.6 million, it said Thursday in Tokyo. Toyota Motor Corp. saidWednesday it will recall about 5 million more cars after findingair-bag inflators in Japan that could be susceptible to abnormaldeployment in a crash, and Nissan Motor Co. said it will call back1.56 million.

The latest round increases the total tally to more than 28million vehicles that 10 automakers have recalled since 2008 forfaulty air bags made by Takata Corp. Regulators in Japan and theU.S. are investigating Takata air-bag inflators that can deploywith too much force, breaking up metal and plastic parts andhurling them at car occupants. At least six deaths have been linkedto the flaw.

“Automakers seem to be approaching the air-bag crisis with adhoc recalls,” said Takeshi Miyao, an analyst at Carnorama. “Iexpect there to be a lot more recalls going forward.”

Separately on Thursday, Daihatsu Motor Co. said it will recallabout 259,000 vehicles in Japan, also for faulty air bags made byTakata.

Unique scope

“This situation is unique in terms of its scope but it’s goingto be more common in the future because of the global nature ofvehicle designs,” said Neil Steinkamp, a managing director at StoutRisius Ross Inc. who studies warranty and recall issues. “This isplaying out internationally as different regulatorsinvestigate.”

More and more automakers are designing vehicles that share partsacross millions of different models in many countries, so onefailure can affect multiple lines, he said.

Nissan said the inflators involved in the latest recall weremade at Takata’s Monclova plant in Mexico, which also manufactureddevices called back in previous safety campaigns. Honda also saidall of the vehicles subject to its latest recall had inflators madeby Takata in Mexico.

Toyota said its latest recalls were triggered by investigationsinto a ruptured air-bag inflator recovered from a scrapped car at asalvage yard in Japan in November 2014. Air leaks were found thatcould allow moisture to seep into the device and cause thepropellant to deteriorate, according to Kayo Doi, a Toyotaspokeswoman.

“After further investigation, we decided to conduct this recallas a preventive measure,” she said.

Takata silent

Takata spokesman Hideyuki Matsumoto declined to comment on therecalls, saying the company has no information on them.

Six fatalities in Honda cars, including five in the U.S. and onein Malaysia, have been blamed on shrapnel from Takata air bags. Atleast 105 injuries are connected to the flaw, U.S. Senator BillNelson said last month.

The latest expansion shows the risk of being too cautious onexpanding the recalls as government and corporate investigatorslook for a specific cause, Steinkamp said.

“You have tension between wanting to protect consumers and goingas broad as possible with a recall versus the manufacturer whowants this to be fact-based,” he said. “They need to be quicker.You need to go broader if you can’t identify the specific cause.There should be a low bar for death.”

Takata forecast

Takata, which has forecast a return to profit this fiscal year,has said it’s unable to estimate the penalties from the lawsuitsassociated with the air bags and hasn’t set aside any amount tocover them as the cause of the defect is still beinginvestigated.

Toyota said it will replace the affected front driver-sideair-bag inflators with newly manufactured parts produced by DaicelCorp. Takata will supply the replacements for front passenger-sideair-bag inflators because compatible parts from a differentsupplier aren’t available, Toyota said.

Toyota said it isn’t aware of injuries or fatalities from theaffected vehicles in the latest recall. Of the cars recalled, 1.36million are in Japan, about 1.3 million are in Europe while 637,000are in the U.S., the company said.

Nissan will recall vehicles manufactured from 2004 to 2007 andits dealers will test the inflators and replace as necessary, thecompany said in an e-mailed statement. The automaker has alreadyrecalled vehicles in regions with high humidity such as the GulfCoast in the U.S. and inflators in these vehicles will be replacedwithout testing, it said.

A group of 10 automakers hired aerospace and defense companyOrbital ATK Inc. to test potentially faulty Takata air- baginflators. The Japanese component maker has also commissionedGerman research group Fraunhofer Society to investigate the causeof air bag ruptures.

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