Today, the National National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that Nissan is recalling 242,720 MY2005-2009 Pathfinder, Frontier and XTerra vehicles sold in certain States of the country (see details after the jump) which use heavy concentrations of road salt in the winter. A mixture of snow/water and salt can enter into the vehicle's front crash zone sensor (CZS) housing causing it to rust. If this occurs, then there could be a signal interruption resulting in the non-deployment of the driver and passenger front air bags in the event of a crash.

Nissan said that the vehicles affected were originally sold in or, are currently registered in the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District Of Columbia.

Nissan said that dealers will replace the front CZS with a redesigned sensor free of cost while owners in the other states will receive extended warranty coverage for the sensor to 10 years. These owners will be notified of the warranty extension by mail and will receive a sticker to place in their warranty booklet explaining the extended warranty coverage.