Honda has a new recall on its hands concerning the rearview camera in its 2018-2020 Odyssey minivan.
On Wednesday, Honda alerted the public to a recall report it submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Under this new recall, as many as 325,588 Odyssey minivans between the 2018 and 2020 model years could have damaged rearview cameras that fail to display an image to the driver.
Some of the same minivans included in this campaign were part of an earlier 2020 recall that aimed to fix the same issue. Specifically, water can enter the rearview camera assembly and cause the printed circuit board (PCB) within to corrode. If that happens, then no video signal will appear inside the cars, as should happen when a driver puts the Odyssey into reverse gear. Not only does that create a safety issue, but it also puts the affected vehicles out of compliance with U.S. safety standards, which also warrants a safety recall to fix the problem.
Honda told safety regulators that the cause of the problem is two-fold. First, the “boss hole” for the rearview camera housing was too small for the screw it used to secure the camera in place. Beyond that, variations in positioning of the housing on the assembly jig could have caused the screw to be misaligned when it was assembled. The stress caused the plastic to crack, and those cracks can grow over time to allow water in that could damage the camera assembly’s internal components.
According to its report, Honda says the problem could affect some Odyssey minivans in the following model years:
- 2018: 112,120 units
- 2019: 138,594 units
- 2020: 74,874 units
The automaker says only a small percentage — less than 1% — actually have the sort of corrosion that would render the rearview cameras completely inoperable. Nevertheless, it will replace the Magna-built cameras with Sony units instead, that should (hopefully) fix the issue permanently. Honda notified dealers on July 2, and will send out owner notifications about the problem on August 24.
When the parts are available, dealers will replace the rearview camera with a new part, free of charge. Owners can check whether their Odyssey is included in the recall by checking Honda’s recall website (recall number HOX) or the NHTSA’s database (recall number 26V-423).
