Sharing its name with Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey has been hit with a recall. A few examples of Honda's minivan and a handful of RDXs were produced with improperly tightened steering gear box assemblies, with Honda and the Acura brand estimating 186 potentially affected vehicles.
Affected minivans were assembled between August 11, 2023 and October 26, 2023 at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, whereas affected crossovers were produced at the East Liberty Auto Plant in Ohio between September 23, 2023 and September 25, 2023. The electric power steering racks for these models bear part numbers 53600-THR-A072-M1 and 53600-TJB-A212-M1.
Supplied by JTEKT Automotive North America, the assemblies in question feature a reducer that may have been improperly fastened. The resulting cross-threaded bolts allow moisture to enter the assembly, resulting in corrosion. The safety risk associated with corrosion is gear binding.
How did the supplier mess up these steering racks? According to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the tool used to fasten the reducer to the steering box was changed from a torque wrench to a torque gun. An inappropriate rotation angle upper limit setting led to the cross-threaded condition of the bolts.
Honda's investigation further determined that JTEKT also removed the manual temporary start step from the fastening procedure. Looking at the glass half full, the supplier was transparent about it. As per the report attached below, JTEKT notified Honda about this issue on November 11, 2023.
Photo: Acura
The workflow process was revised on September 22 last year, with JTEKT reinstating the manual temporary start step and returning to the torque wrench fastening tool with the correct upper limit rotation angle setting. Dealers have already been instructed to replace the rack with a non-defective assembly, whereas known owners will be informed via first-class mail on April 1, 2024. No joke!
Obviously enough, the more expensive model between the Odyssey and RDX is the Acura-branded crossover. Slightly larger than the Honda CR-V, the RDX comes with a 2.0-liter turbo from the same engine family as the Civic Type R's 315-horsepower unit. In this application, the K-series engine puts out 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet (380 Nm) of twist on 91-octane dinosaur juice.
The premium-oriented model starts at $44,350 (sans destination charge), whereas $29,500 is the base price of the CR-V. The Odyssey, which relies on a free-breathing V6 rather than a force-fed I4, is currently available to configure from $38,240. The Odyssey is one of merely four minivans on sale today, the other three being the Toyota Sienna, Kia Carnival, and Chrysler Pacifica. You can blame three-row SUVs for the minivan's slow demise.
Speaking of which, the Odyssey moved 74,738 units in 2023 as opposed to 110,298 examples of the Pilot. Over at Acura, the Pilot-twinned MDX racked up 57,599 deliveries. Regarding the RDX and CR-V, make that 39,228 and 361,457 deliveries.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News