Honda’s US unit (American Honda Motor) is recalling an incredible 5.1m cars to replace dual stage, driver’s side, front air bags with potentially faulty Takata inflators. The official NHTSA announcement – which came after an earlier announcement by the automaker – was followed a few days later by a news agency report some already replaced air bags may need to be renewed again and there is confusion over exact numbers of vehicles affected overall.
Honda’s recall is for 2001-2007 Accord, 2001-2005 Civic, 2002-2006 CR-V, 2003-2011 Element, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2008 Pilot, 2006 Ridgeline, 2003 Acura CL, 2003-2006 Acura MDX, and 2002-2003 Acura TL models sold mostly in the US.
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“The affected vehicles are equipped with a dual stage, driver, frontal air bag that may be susceptible to moisture intrusion and other factors, including manufacturing variability that, over time, could cause the inflator to rupture,” NHTSA said. “In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver’s frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported today at least 400,000 of the 4m replacement inflators for defective Takata air bags will need to be replaced again in US vehicles. The agency cited unnamed sources at the Japanese supplier and NHTSA.
Another 500,000 of those parts appear to be safe, US safety regulators have said, leaving the safety of more than 3m replacement parts in question.
Reuters noted: “But no one seems to be able to tell owners with any certainty just how many vehicles may still contain defective original or replacement parts.”
Takata in mid-May told NHTSA almost 34m air bag inflators in the US had the potential to rupture, sending spraying metal fragments inside vehicles. At least six deaths and hundreds of injuries are linked to such events.
NHTSA previously had identified problems with about 17m Takata inflators. Reuters said it was not clear how many vehicles were equipped with defective inflators although the tallly appeared to be far fewer than 34m.
The report added an unspecified number of vehicles have Takata air bags on both driver and passenger sides and, in some cases, both may be defective. In other cases, replacement parts already installed in those vehicles also may be defective.
Since that 18 May Takata admission, eight of 10 affected automakers have either expanded earlier recalls or begun new recalls while one more has said potentially defective parts were covered by previous recalls, Reuters said. Only 3.3m vehicles were added to the recall list then and neither Takata nor NHTSA can explain the disparity.
Confusion also surrounds the number of vehicles with already replaced parts which need more repairs. At least one automaker partly addressed the issue on Thursday.
Honda, one of Takata’s largest air bag customers, on Thursday told NHTSA an unspecified number of owners who had replacement parts installed since 12 September, 2014, “received an inflator of a different design, and therefore are not included in this recall”, according to Reuters. Honda told the news agency it had installed 1.2m driver’s side replacement air bags since 12 September, using kits assembled by Takata using inflators “of a different, contemporary design” made by Takata and other suppliers.
A NHTSA official told Reuters on Wednesday that it was up to Takata and the carmakers to “demonstrate to us that the remedy parts are safe for the life of the vehicle.” A priority now was to determine which of the replacement parts “are suspect and need to be replaced” again, the NHTSA official said.
Takata and contract suppliers have been gradually ramping up shipments of replacement parts to automakers, the report noted. An estimated 400,000 of the replacement driver’s side inflators use a potentially defective propellant wafer that is shaped like a batwing. “Those will have to be replaced again,” Reuters’ Takata source said. That estimate was confirmed by the NHTSA source.
About 500,000 replacement parts have been made this year for Takata by outside suppliers, including TRW Automotive and Autoliv , according to the agency’s Takata source. TRW and Autolive replacement inflators use a different chemical from Takata’s.
“I don’t think we have any reason to suspect any problems with products from other suppliers,” the NHTSA source told Reuters. By the end of 2015, Takata expects to provide at least 1m inflators a month, of which about 700,000 will be made by TRW, Autoliv and others.
Mazda on Thursday announced a recall of 75,000 cars in Japan to replace Takata air bag inflators. Of that, about 38,000 had previously been called back for investigative purposes in December, a Mazda spokesman told Reuters. The automaker added it would also recall cars in the US. So far, it has recalled 811,000 vehicles worldwide due to Takata inflators.
A Friday report from Bloomberg News said Takata planned to promote its top quality executive to its board to give him more authority.
