Honda extends airbag inflation recall to 440,000 cars


10 Feb 2010

The woes of Japanese car makers continue today with Honda announcing it is extending an existing 2008 recall over an airbag inflation problem to 440,000 cars, mainly in the North American market but also in Australia, Japan and other Asian locations.

The driver’s airbag inflators in these vehicles may deploy with too much pressure, Honda said, resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants.  

Honda said it is aware of 12 incidents – one death and 11 injuries – related to airbag inflations problems as of this month, although it said none of these have occurred since July 2009.

“However, we have concluded that we cannot be completely certain that the driver’s airbag inflator in the vehicles being added to this recall at this time will perform as designed,” the company said, adding that it had decided to add certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles to the recall.

The company said it will start notifying affected customers this month.

The original airbag recall had applied to just 4,000 Accord and Civic models from 2001, with Honda then expanding the recall to 440,000 model year 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic and certain 2002 Acura TL vehicles in July 2009.

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com