Honda is recalling more than 750,000 of its vehicles over the risk of airbags improperly deploying.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration detailed in its report that front and knee-level airbags may deploy despite the presence of an infant or small person.
“In the event of a crash, the front passenger frontal and knee airbags may deploy despite the presence of an occupant … for whom deployment should be suppressed, increasing the risk of injury,” the report said.
The reason for the error in the seat weight sensor is a peculiar one.
“Due to a natural disaster at the manufacturing plant of a tier-2 supplier, the tier-1 supplier temporarily changed the base material in the printed circuit board of the seat weight sensor, which was not sufficiently verified for its intended use,” the report read. “The alternative base material could allow additional strain to the printed circuit board that can lead to a capacitor cracking and an internal short circuit.”
In this case, the natural disaster may be referring to historic flooding in east Asia in 2020. According to the Autopian, flooding may have caused a tier-2 supplier in China (which produces smaller parts) to not be able to provide materials for a significant period of time.
The outlet also theorized that the tier-1 supplier may have been “Aisin Electronics of Illinois, which is a subsidiary of mega Japanese supplier Aisin and the one listed on the recall notice.”
Nevertheless, the car dealers will have to “replace the seat weight sensor with a non-defective part” for the owners for a large swath of Honda vehicles.
As reported by AL.com, the list of vehicles included:
2020-2022 Honda Accord
2020-2021 Honda Accord Hybrid
2020 Honda Civic 2-door
2020-2022 Honda Civic 4-door
2021-2022 Honda Civic hatchback
2021 Honda Civic Type R
2020-2021 Honda CR-V
2020-2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid
2020 Honda Fit
2020-2022 Honda HR-V
2021 Honda Insight
2020-2022 Honda Odyssey
2020-2022 Honda Pilot
2020-2021 Honda Passport
2020-2021 Honda Ridgeline
2020 Acura MDX
2022 Acura MDX
2020-2022 Acura RDX
2020-2021 Acura TLX
Unfortunately for Honda, just 1% of the 750,114 recalls are likely to be effected by the defect. That means only 7,500 cars could actually be effected, but, of course, its better to be safe than sorry.
Honda reportedly said in a statement that it has had 3,834 warranty claims, but there have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the recall. As Reuters noted, the recall dates back to June 2020.
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