Honda Recalls 37,000 Accords In Hunt To Find 2,500 Defective Airbags

Image courtesy of Jacki Vance-Kuss

To date, Honda has replaced nearly nine million defective, shrapnel-shooting Takata airbags. Now the company is undertaking a “needle-in-a-haystack” search for 2,500 Accord vehicles that weren’t included in any of those recalls. The automaker says these cars have replacement airbags that were installed before anyone knew of the defect.

Honda is recallingProblem is, Honda doesn’t know exactly which cars have which airbags, so it has decided to recall 37,421 model-year 2003 Accords, just to find the 2,500 problem airbags.

According to a notice [PDF] posted with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the vehicles were originally equipped with airbag inflators made by Daicel.

However, if the vehicle was involved in a crash or otherwise needed the airbag replaced, the new airbag may contain a Takata inflator.

The company says in a chronology [PDF] that it first became aware of the potentially defective replacement airbags in Dec. 2016 when it was notified of an abnormal airbag deployment involving the driver-side and passenger side safety devices in a 2003 Accord.

Honda discovered in February that Takata modules were used for service parts in the 2003 Accords, meaning they were used as replacement for original airbags.

So far, Honda says it is unaware of any injuries related to the 2,500 replacement airbags.

The carmaker says it will begin notifying affected owners in May and dealers will inspect the airbags. If they contain a Takata part, dealers will replace the inflator with a Daicel inflator.

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