Several Honda and Acura models could have faulty front passenger air bag sensors.
American Honda launched a new recall campaign for just over 750,000 vehicles due to faulty front passenger seat air bag sensors. According to recall documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the automaker received 3,834 claims for the issue, but no deaths or injuries have occurred between June 30, 2020 and January 19, 2024.
The front passenger seat air bag sensor is responsible for disabling the air bag if there’s a child or small adult in the seat. The weight sensor can crack and short circuit in certain circumstances, which may cause the passenger air bag to trigger when it shouldn’t in an accident, increasing the risk of injury by way of the air bag itself to smaller passengers.
In total, the 750,114 vehicles under this recall include Honda and Acura’s most popular models. Between the 2020 and 2022 model years, the campaign affects the Honda Pilot as well as the Accord, Civic sedan, HR-V and Odyssey. The 2020 and 2021 Honda Accord Hybrid is also included, as are the Civic Coupe, CR-V and CR-V Hybrid, are also included, Passport and Ridgeline. Finally, the 2021 Civic Type R and Insight are part of Honda’s recall.
As for Acura, this campaign affects the 2020-2021 TLX and the 2020-2022 MDX and RDX crossovers.
The automaker will notify owners by mail about the recall campaign starting on March 18. From that point, owners can take their vehicles into Honda dealers, where technicians will replace the passenger seat sensors free of charge. Owners can find out more about whether their car is affected by plugging in their VIN on Honda’s recall website (the company assigned this as recall number “XHP” and “VHQ”, or on the NHTSA site (recall number 24V-064).
Honda told the NHTSA the issue lies with a “tier 2” manufacturing supplier. Due to a natural disaster at that supplier, the “tier 1” supplier, Aisin Electronics, temporarily changed the base material of the printed circuit board of the weight sensor. The alternative material was not sufficiently validated for use in a weight sensor, and the additional strain could lead to a cracked capacitor within the module, and an internal short circuit that may render the sensor inoperable.
Per Honda’s notice, this only affects the above-mentioned models through the 2022 model year, so newer-generation versions of the Accord CR-V, HR-V and Pilot are not included.
