Honda Motor Co. announced yesterday that it is expanding a recall of 2001 and 2002 model-year vehicles due to concern regarding faulty airbag inflators.
The recall affects primarily US and Canadian customers with 420,443 additional vehicles to be recalled taking the total number or affected vehicles to more than 900,000. A Honda spokeswoman in Tokyo said the company was also recalling “a small number of vehicles” elsewhere in the world. UK models are unaffected by the recent recall.
According to a statement from Honda, the recall expansion has occurred because the company “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, [it has] decided to add certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles to this recall.”
This most recent announcement follows the January recall of 171,372 Jazz (2002-08) models in the UK, to arrange an examination of the master power window switch.
According to a statement from the Japanese manufacturer, the Jazz recall was because “the master window switch in the driver’s door can malfunction when exposed to large amounts of liquid ingress, for example if the window is left open frequently or for long periods during heavy rain. Water and other fluids can cause the window switch’s circuit board to malfunction and prevent opening or closing of the window. In rare cases, the circuit board can overheat causing melting or smoke or, potentially, fire.”
There have been no reported cases of a switch malfunction causing fire to a Jazz in the UK although such an incident is alleged to have led to the death of a two-year-old girl in South Africa last year.
