DETROIT, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Chrysler Group will begin replacing potentially defective air bag inflators made by Takata Corp in more than 371,000 U.S. vehicles in early December, according to documents filed by the automaker with U.S. safety regulators.
Chrysler, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, said in documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that Takata "has made no determination of a safety defect" in the inflators being studied by the U.S. safety agency, but it would nonetheless begin replacing them no later than Dec. 19.
It is looking at starting the recall in parts of Florida as early as the first week of next month, according to the NHTSA documents.
The population of inflators the NHTSA is studying - the so-called Beta series - totals 37.8 million, according to NHTSA documents. Of those, about 25 million are passenger-side inflators and about 12.8 million are driver-side inflators.
Takata's air bag inflators are being investigated because they can explode with excessive force, rupturing and sending metal shards into vehicle passenger compartments. The issue has been linked to four deaths and 160 injuries. (Reporting by Paul Lienert and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Alan Crosby)