Honda recalls 300,000 cars worldwide for faulty airbags

In the biggest recall in the company's history, Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co's recall of vehicles for or faulty driver's airbag inflators yesterday rose to nearly 950,000.

Tokyo-based Honda, Japan's second-largest automaker is recalling more than 300,000 cars worldwide of 10 models manufactured in 2001 and 2002, including models of the popular Accord and Civic.

Of the latest recall, 280,000 were sold in the US, 27,000 in Canada, 2,000 in Japan, 359 vehicles in Europe with 200 in Germany alone, and 158 in Israel and one in the UK. 

The expanded recall is for the following makes and model years: 2001 and 2002 Accord, 2001 to 2003 Civic, 2001 to 3003 Odyssey, 2002 and 2003 CR-V, 2003 Pilot, 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2 C.

''Affected driver's airbag inflators may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury or fatality," the carmaker said in a statement.

The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, 2009 and early this year.

In November, 2008, Honda recalled 4,000 Accord and Civic 2001 model, and then extended the recall in July 2009 to 440,000 and 378,758 vehicles in February this year.

The carmaker said that the initial cause of the recall was excessive moisture in the inflator propellant, a part that inflates the air bag, but that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, after it received more complaints for the same problem.