Honda announced a Canada-wide recall for nearly 67,000 vehicles due to airbag-sensor issues in front passenger seats.
Honda’s Feb. 6 recall notice of 66,846 vehicles warns of problems with the weight sensor that ensures airbags only deploy for adults. If a child were in the front passenger seat, deployed frontal and knee airbags could cause injury, the company said.
The recall applies to the Honda Accord, Civic, CR-V, Fit, HR-V, Insight, Odyssey, Pilot, Passport, and Ridgeline, as well as Acura MDX, RDX, and TLX models from 2020 to 2022, the company said in its recall notice.
The problem came to light after Honda’s Tier 1 supplier temporarily changed the base material in the printed circuit board of the vehicle’s seat sensors due to a “natural disaster” at its Tier 2 supplier’s manufacturing plant, the company said.
The alternative base material was not adequately tested for the intended use, permitting “additional strain on the printed circuit board,” Honda said, adding that an internal short circuit can occur if the capacitor cracks.
The automaker said roughly one percent of vehicles being recalled have the defect. It is urging owners of affected vehicles to monitor both the passenger airbag indicator and the warning light for the supplemental restraint system (SRS), which would illuminate if there were an issue.
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Vehicles with an illuminated SRS light should be taken to a Honda or Acura dealership immediately, because there are “very low quantities” of service parts, Honda advised. The company also said owners who paid for these repairs at their own expense may be eligible for reimbursement.
Dealers were notified Feb. 2 about the recall and owner notification is set to begin next month.
Honda’s recall comes just two months after Toyota issued a similar notice about airbag sensors, recalling more than 100,000 vehicles across the country.
The company, which also recalled more than one million vehicles in the United States, issued recall notices for 99,965 Toyota and Lexus vehicles and 3,812 Toyota Corolla Cross vehicles in Canada.
While activated airbags can cause injuries such as cuts, bruises, or abrasions, they typically help more than they hurt. According to Transport Canada, airbags are key in preventing life-threatening and debilitating head and chest injuries.
“A study of real-world crashes conducted by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the combination of seat belts and air bags is 75 percent effective in preventing serious head injuries and 66 percent effective in preventing serious chest injuries,” the Transport Canada site reads.
“That means 75 of every 100 people who would have suffered a serious head injury in a crash, and 66 out of 100 people who would have suffered chest injuries, were spared that fate because they wore seat belts and their vehicle had air bags.”
