Honda Recalls 37,000 Accords for Possible Takata Airbag Inflators
CARS.COM — Honda is recalling approximately 37,000 model-year 2003 Accord coupes to replace Takata passenger-side frontal airbag inflators. Although the 2003 Accord is under a broader Takata recall, Honda says the affected cars — all Accord coupes with the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine — didn’t have Takata inflators to begin with, but they may have received them in subsequent repairs.
Notifications will go out to Honda owners beginning in May. Honda dealers will inspect the Accords’ passenger-side airbags and, if they find Takata inflators, replace them with non-Takata inflators for free. The Associated Press reports that the recall is an effort to find some 2,500 inflators that were replaced under repair, but Honda doesn’t know which Accords got the repair. This recall reportedly encompasses the full pool of potential cars. A Honda spokesman did not immediately respond to a Cars.com request for comment.
When exposed to long-term humidity, Takata’s ammonium-nitrate inflators can inflate with too much force and rupture, sending shrapnel into the cabin during an airbag deployment. The crisis has been linked to 11 U.S. deaths and triggered the largest recall in U.S. automotive history, with some 46 million inflators in 29 million cars in the U.S. alone as of early 2017. Regulators expect the Takata recall will balloon to some 64 to 69 million inflators in 42 million U.S. cars by 2020.
