The addition of these vehicles comes after in late 2008 Honda decided to recall some 4,000 model year 2001 Accord and Civic vehicles to replace the driver's airbag inflator. According to Honda, following this decision, two additional incidents were reported, including one fatality from a vehicle not included in that recall.
In July 2009, Honda announced the recall has expanded to 440,000 model year 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic and certain 2002 Acura TL vehicles and now, in February 2010, an extra 378,000 vehicles for the same issue.
The fault causes the airbag, when deployed, to 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. In all, Honda says it is aware of an additional 12 incidents related to this issue as of February 2010.
"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," says Honda in a release.
Today's recall sheds more negative light on Japanese-built vehicles, following Toyota's huge recall of most of its models.
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