2012 Civic & Other Models Involved In Side Curtain Airbag Recall

2012 Honda Accord, 2012 Honda Civic, 2012 Honda Crosstour and 2012 Acura MDX Involved In Side Curtain Airbag Recall

American Honda has voluntarily expanded its January 31, 2012 recall of 347 model-year 2012 Honda Accord and Honda Crosstour vehicles in the U.S. to replace a side curtain airbag assembly to include additional Accord and Crosstour vehicles and to add certain model year 2012 Honda Civic and Acura MDX vehicles, increasing the total recall size to 974 affected vehicles.

An incorrect propellant mixture was prepared when manufacturing the initiator component of the side-curtain airbag inflator. Use of the wrong initiator propellant may result in a failure of the pressurized gas that inflates the side-curtain airbag to be released from the airbag inflator, which in turn would cause non-deployment of the side curtain airbag during a crash. No crashes or injuries have been reported related to this defect, which was identified during internal production testing by a supplier.

Honda is announcing this recall to encourage owners of all affected vehicles to take their vehicles to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of this recall from Honda. Mailed notification to customers will occur on February 24, 2012. In addition to contacting customers by mail, after February 24, owners of these vehicles will be able to determine if their vehicles require inspection by going on-line to www.recalls.honda.com and www.recalls.acura.com or by calling (800) 999-1009 for Honda owners or (800) 382-2238 for Acura owners, and selecting option 4.

www.recalls.honda.com also works - you just put your vin in the box.

Update: Airbag recall could swell to countless auto makers.

The airbags involved in the recalls may have been manufactured with an ineffective mix of inflation gasses, which could leave the bags flat in the event of a collision. The defective hardware has found its way into models from Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Nissan, and has resulted in the recall of around 2,700 units so far. If NHTSA finds the defective airbags in other vehicles, that number could swell substantially.

The defective airbag inflators were manufactured by a Autoliv, a Swedish supplier. According to the report, Autoliv shipped a total of 10,500 faulty inflators to manufacturers as well as two other airbag makers. Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Kia and Suzuki all purchased the defective parts, though it's unclear exactly which models were equipped with the Autoliv pieces.

Ford, GM and Chrysler have all said their airbag inflators work differently than those used by other automakers. The companies haven't seen any failures in extensive testing. Autoliv, meanwhile, said that the company saw the problem occur once in tests at -22 degrees Farenheit, though the malfunction may be more likely to occur at low temperatures.