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 U.S.
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.
The automaker says it is aware of 12 incidents related to this issue as of February 2010 in addition to two events when the decision to first expand the recall was made in July 2009.
Models affected by the expanded recall include certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles. Owners of these vehicles are being encouraged to take them to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification from Honda that their vehicle is affected. Notification to customers will start this month.
It was 16 months ago that Honda first announced it's plan to recall about 4,000 model year 2001 Accord and Civic vehicles to replace the driver's airbag inflator based on 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. That prompted the company to expand that recall in July, 2009 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 twelve incidents.
Honda says two types manufacturing machines are used in pressing the inflator propellant. One allowed the company to verify that all of the propellant was within specification, but the automaker says the other process cannot be validated.
As a result, the company is recalling all inflator assemblies that were not confirmed by 100-percent automatic inspection during production.
