The 2012 Honda Civic is one of the vehicles covered by the recent spate of airbag recalls.
Federal safety regulators have launched an investigation of a major Swedish-based airbag supplier linked to recent recalls by four separate Japanese automakers.
That list includes Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and Honda – the latter maker announcing a recall early this month that was then doubled in size last week, though the total number of vehicles covered by the two announcements is still less than 1,000. In all, the four automakers have now recalled about 2,700 vehicles.
The NHTSA probe has centered on the U.S. arm of supplier Autoliv, which told the federal safety agency it shipped about 10,500 potentially defective airbag inflators to those four makers and two other airbag manufacturers.
It appears the Autoliv system may not properly inflate one or both of the side impact curtains used in vehicles covered by the recall. The risk appears to be most severe when vehicles are operated in low temperatures. So far, however, the NHTSA has received no reports of any injuries or deaths connected with the defective airbag systems.
The vehicles already covered by recalls include:
- 427 2011-model Toyota RAV-4s assembled from November 24 through December 19, 2011;
- 974 2012 Honda Accords, Civics, Crosstours and Acura MDXs produced from Nov. 30 through Jan. 26;
- 381 2012 Subaru Outback and Legacy models made from Dec. 1 through Dec. 23;
- 976 2012 Nissan Altimas and Versas made from Nov. 21 through Dec. 21.
As those figures don’t match the total from Autoliv it is possible some other vehicles could be recalled – though it appears the problem was caught before all the defective inflator systems were installed.
Autoliv also provided airbag systems to General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Kia and Suzuki plants in North America, but it appears those makers may have used different designs and have so far held up in testing – so they are not likely to order recalls unless ordered to do so by NHTSA.
In a letter to NHTSA, Autoliv said it “did not disagree” with the conclusions drawn by Toyota and Honda. But Autoliv disputed that parts provided to Nissan and Subaru contained a safety defect.
The total is significantly less than for other airbag recalls of years past, most notably a long-running issue with a Honda system that resulted in millions of vehicle recalls over the last several years.
(Honda facing growing recall issue. Click Here for that story.)
Joe Szczesny contributed to this report.