Airbag inflator rupture on the 2010 Mercedes Benz C300
4 crashes 3 injuries 7 of the 155 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When airbag inflator rupture gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Mercedes Benz C300 report airbag inflator rupture at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 66,500 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,500 miles | 48,350 miles | 81,000 miles | 94,500 miles | 105,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash and 3 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $0–$0 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 187; the 2010 has 155. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Takata recall car was involved in an accident. Car was stationary at a stop sign, rear ended, pushed into cross traffic, hit another car, spun around and hit a light pole. Airbags did not deploy.
Takata recall. I received a notice from mbusa 6-8 months ago, and have gotten no response from my local dealer who only knows that this recall, to his knowledge, is on hold, and no parts are available. How can that be possible? If a car is in a crash and the airbag inflator deploys, does it not need to be replaced in order to complete the repairs to the vehicle? I am concerned, and have no faith in the corporate lobbyists and fat cats that cut corners for profits. I just want my car fixed, because I am handicapped, and have an extremely bad back, and worry that incorrect deployment of the airbag would further damage my spine, and cause me to go to a wheelchair from my cane, or worsen the numbness and my inability to get around. This should be your concern as well, because I have contacted an attorney who is willing to take my case for a percentage of the settlement, if we decide to settle, or accept the court mandated fee he would be entitled to. My entire lumbar and sacral spine are compromised bye degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, multiple spinal senoses and more
Takata airbags drivers side and passenger side have been on recall since before february 2016. The car lives in houston, texas, one of the most humid climates in the country. Nothing has been done. On the contrary, based on several discussions and calls to two local dealerships, I feel like nothing will ever be done. My wife and I are afraid to drive the car with defective airbags and have had them disconnected.
Also reported on the 2010 Mercedes Benz C300
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other electrical problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other steering problem
Other lighting problem
Door latch or handle failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 155 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does airbag inflator rupture happen on the 2010 Mercedes Benz C300?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag inflator rupture on the 2010 Mercedes Benz C300?
155 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 15 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed