Honda adds vehicles to recall over air bags

Honda said Tuesday that it is voluntarily adding 437,763 vehicles to a previously announced recall to fix drivers-side air bags in 2001 and 2002 model year vehicles, bringing the total number of affected vehicles to 947,913 worldwide.

The company said it will replace the air bag inflator in the cars because they can deploy with too much pressure, causing the inflator to rupture and injure or kill the driver. Honda said it is aware of 12 accidents related to the issue, including one that resulted in death with the others causing injuries.

The expanded recall by Japan’s No. 2 automaker includes 378,758 vehicles in the U.S., as well as 41,685 in Canada, 4,042 in Japan and 13,278 in other countries. That brings the total number of Honda vehicles recalled for the air bag issue to 826,424 in the U.S.

Models affected include the 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey CR-V and some and some 2002 Acura TLs.

John Mendel, Honda’s executive vice president of Honda in America, said Tuesday evening that Honda informed NHTSA of its decision to expand the recall Tuesday and notified the Japanese government.

Mendel said Honda decided to hold a conference call with journalists Tuesday due to the increased scrutiny and interest in automotive safety caused by several recent Toyota recalls involving unintended acceleration on many of its models as well as brake problems on its popular Prius hybrid.

“There is certainly a heightened sensitivity right now with anything that has to do with recalls,” Mendel said.

Honda issued its first recall related to the air bag inflators in November 2008 for 3,940 copies of 2001 Accords and Civics in the U.S. That recall was based on three complaints dating back to February 2007.

In 2009, Honda received five more reports of shards and in June 2009 Honda expanded the recall to 443,727 Accords and Civics from the 2001 model year.

That move drew questions from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which asked Honda in August 2009 why the expanded group of vehicles hadn't been part of the original recall. Honda said in September 2009 it and its supplier, Takata, had limited the recall based on their understanding of a problem with the air bag propellant.

The June recall was “expected to capture all affected vehicles,” Honda told NHTSA in September.

The public file does not contain any further requests for information from NHTSA about the problem.

Mendel said NHTSA’s inquiry remains pending. Still, Honda officials said its action today was not due to NHTSA's questions or pressure.

Honda said it is in the process of notifying all owners of affected vehicles and is encouraging the owners it notifies to take their vehicles to an authorized dealer so that the air bag can be replaced.