Honda has expanded a previously announced recall of certain 2001 and 2002 model-year vehicles to replace the driver's airbag inflator in an additional 378,758 vehicles in the United States. The driver's airbag inflators in these vehicles may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury or fatality.
In total, Honda is aware of 12 incidents related to this issue as of February 2010. While Honda was aware of two additional events when the decision to first expand the recall was made in July 2009, it is not aware of any new events that have occurred after July 2009. However, the company has concluded that it 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. Therefore, Honda has decided to add certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles to this recall.*
Honda is announcing this recall expansion to encourage all owners of these vehicles to take their vehicle to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification from Honda that their vehicle is affected. Notification to customers will start within this month.
As with nearly all Honda and Acura safety recalls, Honda originally brought this matter to the attention of NHTSA and has kept NHTSA apprised of our decision to include additional vehicles in the expanded recall.
“When Honda identifies concerns of this nature, nothing is more important to the company than fulfilling our obligation and responsibility to alert our customers,” the company said in a press release. “To this end, as with the July 2009 recall expansion, in addition to contacting customers by mail, owners of these vehicles will be able to determine if their vehicle requires repair by going on-line or calling. Honda owners can go to http://owners.honda.com recalls or call 800-999-1009; Acura owners can go to http://owners.acura.com/recalls or call 800-382-2238. When owners of these vehicles receive written notification of this recall from Honda, they should contact their authorized Honda or Acura dealer to schedule an appointment for repair. Honda will also follow the mailed notifications with telephone contact to each customer.”
As background, 16 months ago, Honda announced to NHTSA a plan to conduct a recall on fewer than 4,000 model year 2001 Accord and Civic vehicles to replace the driver's airbag inflator, based on the company’s analysis of four instances attributed to the cause of airbag deployments that resulted in rupture of the driver's airbag inflator.
After the original recall in November, 2008, two additional incidents were reported, including one fatality from a vehicle not included in that recall. Honda’s ongoing analysis led it to recognize the potential for additional vehicles to exhibit this symptom, and in July 2009, it expanded that recall to include approximately 440,000 model year 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic and certain 2002 Acura TL vehicles. To date, Honda is aware of a total of 12 incidents.
If the driver's airbag deploys in an affected vehicle, the driver's airbag inflator could produce excessive internal pressure which may cause the airbag inflator casing to rupture, resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants.
There were two types manufacturing machines used in pressing the inflator propellant. One propellant manufacturing process allowed Honda to verify that all of the propellant was within specification, but it cannot validate the other process to our satisfaction at this time. Honda has decided to recall all inflator assemblies that were not confirmed by 100-percent automatic inspection during production because it cannot be absolutely certain they will all perform as designed, even though recent testing of units from this production process performed correctly.
* Honda also is adding one (1) Honda Pilot and one (1) Acura CL vehicle, each produced in late 2002, to this recall.