Land Rover recalls Defender, Discovery and Range Rover for driver air bag that may not deploy

Here’s the short version: Land Rover is recalling a group of its SUVs because the driver’s air bag might not go off when you need it most — in a crash. That’s about as serious as a recall gets, because the whole point of that air bag is to be there in the split second something goes wrong.

If you own one of these vehicles, this isn’t a paint-chip advisory or a squeaky-trim complaint. It’s the safety system that’s supposed to keep your head off the steering wheel.

What’s actually failing

The problem sits in the driver’s air bag clockspring connector. The clockspring is the coiled electrical ribbon behind your steering wheel that keeps power and signal flowing to the air bag while the wheel turns left and right. It’s what lets the air bag stay electrically connected no matter which way you’ve got the wheel cranked.

According to the filing, the connector on that clockspring can corrode. When metal contacts corrode, they stop passing a clean electrical signal. If that circuit goes bad, the air bag may not get the command to deploy in a crash — or it may not fire at all.

Here’s why that matters. You won’t feel this failure day to day. The car drives fine. The steering works fine. There’s no warning you’d notice from the driver’s seat unless an air bag warning light comes on. The failure only shows up at the exact moment you’d depend on it — the crash. A driver air bag that fails to deploy raises the risk of injury, and that’s the reason for the recall.

What the filing says

The recall covers three specific vehicles: the 2020 Land Rover Defender, the 2021 Land Rover Discovery, and the 2022 Land Rover Range Rover. The cause listed is corrosion at the driver’s air bag clockspring connector, which can cause the air bag not to deploy as intended.

This is showing up on the Kelley Blue Book recall listing as of roughly late June into early July 2026. If you want to see where it’s tracked, it’s on KBB’s recall page.

I’ll be straight with you about what I don’t have. The filing here doesn’t give a repair procedure, a parts-availability timeline, or a full breakdown of how many vehicles are covered. When your dealer notice comes, it’ll spell out the fix and whether parts are ready. Until then, treat the air bag as something that may not perform the way you’re counting on it to.

What this means if you own one

1. Run your VIN. Model year and body style aren’t enough — recalls apply to specific VIN ranges. Check your vehicle identification number against the official recall lookup so you know for certain whether your SUV is included. If it is, you’re entitled to the repair.

2. Know that a recall repair is free. This is a safety recall. The manufacturer covers the fix at no cost to you. Nobody should be charging you to correct a corroded clockspring connector that’s the subject of a recall. If a shop tries, that’s not how this works.

3. Watch for the air bag warning light. That light on your dash is your only real clue that something in the restraint system isn’t happy. If it comes on and stays on, don’t wave it off. Get it looked at. A lit air bag light can mean the system has detected a fault in exactly the kind of circuit we’re talking about.

4. Don’t defeat or ignore the system. Some folks see an air bag light and figure they’ll deal with it later. With a deploy-failure issue, “later” is the wrong bet. You can’t schedule a crash, and you can’t test this part yourself in the driveway.

5. Document everything. Keep the recall notice when it lands in your mailbox. Note the date you called the dealer, who you spoke to, and when you’re scheduled. If parts are on backorder, get that in writing. A paper trail protects you if there’s any dispute over timing or a related repair later.

6. Get on the schedule early. Recalls that touch air bags tend to draw a lot of owners calling at once, and parts can get tight. Book the appointment as soon as your VIN comes back affected instead of waiting for the rush.

If you want to keep an eye on how this shakes out for your specific truck, our vehicle pages for the 2020 Land Rover Defender and the 2021 Land Rover Discovery are where we track this kind of thing.

My honest take

A driver air bag that might not deploy is the kind of defect I don’t like to soft-pedal. You can go a hundred thousand miles and never need it. But the one time you do, corrosion in a connector shouldn’t be the reason it stays quiet.

The good news is this is a recognized recall, which means the fix should be free once your dealer has the procedure and parts. The move here is simple: check your VIN, and if you’re covered, get it handled instead of putting it off. This isn’t a system you want to gamble on.