OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2015. Honda today announced that it will initiate a national recall to replace, free of charge, Takata passenger front airbag inflators installed in certain 2001-2005 Civic and 2003-2007 Accord models sold in the United States following a recently announced defect determination by Takata. The recall will add 1.39 million passenger front airbag inflators not previously subject to either a recall or safety improvement campaign.

In its preliminary announcement on May 28, Honda stated that it would recall a more limited population of vehicles. That announcement, which was based on the specific regional nature of the defect determination made by Takata, indicated that approximately 350,000 additional passenger front airbag inflators would be added to inflators included in an earlier regional action (14V-700). However, the NHTSA subsequently interpreted the Takata defect determination as requiring a national recall and directed Honda to conduct a national recall. As a result, based on the Takata defect determination and the NHTSA's subsequent directive, Honda decided to conduct a national recall that will include approximately 1.39 million inflators not previously subject to recall or safety improvement campaign (this includes the estimated 350,000 inflators mentioned in the preliminary announcement). According to currently available information, this results in a total of approximately 2.3 million passenger front airbag inflators now requiring replacement in this action.

Importantly, approximately 915,000 of the affected Civic and Accord vehicles included in existing passenger front airbag inflator recalls and Honda's voluntary safety improvement campaigns (13V-132, 14V-349, 14-353 and 14V-700) will transition into the new recall. The same free repair - replacement of the passenger front airbag inflator - will be completed under the new national action.

NOTE: Today's announcement does not alter the nature or scope of the national driver front airbag inflator recall that also was announced on May 28, 2015.

Mailed notification to registered owners of vehicles affected by this recall will occur within 60 days. The most-updated available consumer information about this action can be obtained at 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.