Honda expands airbag recall to 2.2M more U.S. vehicles

In October, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz USA unit recalled 126,000 C-Class sedans from model years 2008 and 2009 and certain 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK-Class vehicles to address the issue. Nine of the deaths were in vehicles made by Honda.

This comes while automotive supplier Takata is embroiled in a massive faulty airbag recall which has been linked to at least 10 deaths and many injuries.

That risk with Takata airbags has been at the center of a massive safety action that has led to the recall of tens of millions of vehicles worldwide and has continued to grow in recent weeks. If that happens, the air bags may not inflate in a crash. Honda said it has two reports of people being hurt because the air bags didn’t deploy in a crash. Despite an aggressive campaign, Honda brand boss Jeff Conrad told TheDetroitBureau.com that only about 50 percent of the vehicles Honda had targeted prior to this week’s recall have so far been repaired.

But it’s no less serious, and automakers are already moving to recall affected vehicles in the US. That number left out more than 500,000 vehicles sold by Honda’s luxury subsidiary, Acura. As such, the recall covers control units built between 2006 and 2011.

As a result, NHTSA said the recall would be expanded again to include about 1 million vehicles that use the type of driver-side air bag inflator found in the Ranger.

The NHTSA opened an investigation in August after a complaint of a crash in a 2008 Accord in which the air bags did not deploy.

Continental said it would notify automakers that installed these air bag control units in their vehicles.

The company says moisture can get into an electronic control unit and cause it to malfunction.

Honda will install new inflators in the affected cars for free, but the automaker says parts won’t be available until summer because of how many cars are involved. The company will mail interim recall notices to owners by mid-March, with a second notice to follow when parts become available – likely this fall. Fiat Chrysler said it was aware of seven minor injuries possibly tied to the problem, but no accidents. Honda’s latest recall is included in that count.

Auto makers in the USA are recalling more than 24 million vehicles with Takata air bags, which can explode and spray shrapnel.

The larger problem involves a wide range of Honda products equipped with faulty Takata airbags.