Cars and Drivers

Honda Accelerates Air Bag Recall on 1.4 Million Vehicles

Paul Ausick

Published: September 30, 2018 7:43 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 5:07 pm

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) on Thursday filed a recall report with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) bringing forward its planned recall of some 1.4 million vehicles to replace the air bag inflators that may explode and result in serious injury or death to the driver or other occupants of the vehicle.

The recall had not been scheduled to occur until later this year but in its filing Honda said it has now received a sufficient supply of replacement inflators to begin recalling and replacing the Takata inflators now. As of the end of the third quarter of 2017, the independent monitor of the Takata remedy program estimated that more than 45 million inflators needed to be replaced of which about 20 million had already taken place. By the end of this year, the monitor estimated that the recall would expand to some 68 million inflators. The number of vehicles affected by the recall will eventually total more than 34 million. The numbers don’t match up because some vehicles are equipped with just one Takata air bag and some are equipped with two.

At the time of the report, the NHTSA attributed 13 deaths to the defective air bags.

Honda will notify owners of the recall by mail beginning November 15. Even if Honda has replaced the defective Takata driver’s side air bag in an earlier recall, owners will be directed to return to have the passenger-side device replaced.

Here’s a list from carcomplaints.com of models and model years covered by the latest recall. Honda is recalling 100% of all these vehicles sold in the United States, although not all will be recalled this time.

• 2010-2012 Acura RL
• 2010-2014 Acura TSX
• 2011-2014 Acura TSX Wagon
• 2010-2013 Acura ZDX
• 2010-2012 Honda Accord
• 2010-2015 Honda Crosstour
• 2010-2011 Honda Civic
• 2010-2011 Honda CR-V
• 2010-2011 Honda Element
• 2014 Honda FCX Clarity
• 2010-2013 Honda Fit
• 2014 Honda Fit EV
• 2010-2014 Honda Insight
• 2010-2015 Honda Pilot
• 2010-2014 Honda Ridgeline

More details on the recall are available in this NHTSA document. Here’s the November 2017 report of the independent monitor.