Honda Expands Recall For Air Bag Inflator

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, we are not aware of any new events that have occurred after 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. Therefore, Honda have 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 background, sixteen 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 our 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. Our ongoing analysis led us to recognize the potential for additional vehicles to exhibit this symptom, and in July, 2009 Honda 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 twelve 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 Honda cannot validate the other process to satisfaction at this time.

Thus Honda have decided to recall all inflator assemblies that was not inspected during production even though recent testing of units from this production process performed correctly.

Credits: wilswong