25,005 Land Rovers in Japan are heading back to the dealer over a driver's airbag that might not deploy in a crash. Here's the strange part: no connector gets replaced, no airbag gets swapped. Technicians will simply coat the contacts with an anti-corrosion compound — and that's it. The recall opened on July 14, 2026.
The fault sits in the airbag connector on the steering column's clockspring. Vibration causes micro-movement, wear, and fretting corrosion on the contacts. Resistance in the circuit climbs quietly. Then, at the worst possible moment, the signal to fire the airbag might never get through. Japan's campaign has logged zero failures and zero accidents linked to the defect so far.
The recall covers vehicles built between October 21, 2019, and April 7, 2026 — Discovery, Defender 90, 110 and 130, Defender OCTA, PHEV variants, and several Range Rover trims. Defender takes the biggest hit: 21,360 vehicles, or 85.4% of the whole campaign. One single diesel Defender 110 variant alone accounts for 12,029 units — nearly half, at 48.1% of the total.
And Japan isn't alone here. In the US, a matching campaign called D120 has already swept up 250,857 Defender, Discovery, and Range Rover vehicles. JLR's engineers found the airbag warning lamp will light up at least 300 to 400 miles — roughly 480 to 640 km — before a potential failure. So there's time to react. Like their Japanese counterparts, US regulators haven't recorded a single case of non-deployment, crashes, or injuries.
There's no formal ban on driving in the documents. But an illuminated airbag warning is not something to put off until the next scheduled service. Owners of vehicles imported from Japan or the US should check VIN eligibility against the original market: the published number ranges may sweep in a few vehicles that aren't actually affected.
In the US, the campaign is registered with NHTSA under number 26V389, with manufacturer campaign number D120. Owner notification letters start going out on August 7, 2026: an interim notice first, then a second letter once dealers are ready to handle the repair. The fix is identical in both countries — a free application of protective lubricant to the airbag connector's contacts.
