My 2012 Honda Fit still is da bomb - another Takata airbag inflator recall

Back on April 14, 2016 I blogged about How not to communicate – Honda told me my car is literally da bomb. I had received a recall notice about the inflator for the driver’s airbag in the steering wheel. Recently I received another recall notice dated November 2018 about the other inflator - for the airbag at the front passenger seat, as is shown above. It explains the reason as follows:

“Honda has decided that a defect which relates to motor vehicle safety exists in certain 2012 model year Fit vehicles. The passenger frontal airbag inflator in your vehicle may explode when deploying during a crash. The potential for such explosion may occur in some of the subject airbag inflators after prolonged exposure to persistent conditions of high absolute humidity. In the event of a passenger frontal airbag inflator explosion, metal fragments could pass through the airbag cushion material, potentially resulting in serious injury or death to vehicle occupants. The risk of such an occurrence increases over time. It is imperative you schedule an appointment with an authorized Honda dealer now to avoid this condition in the future.”

Further down a sentence printed in red says:  

“Honda suggests that you avoid having a passenger sit in the front passenger’s seat until the recall repair has been performed.”

They said that because there is no way to manually switch off that airbag. It operates based on results from some sensors. Earlier this fall there were articles about the recall in USA Today and Consumer Reports. There is a 72-page service bulletin that describes the procedure for replacing Honda airbag inflators.

This second recall is an example of waiting for the other shoe to drop – a phrase explained by Andrew Thompson in the 2017 book Hair of the Dog to Paint the Town Red:

“Wait for the other shoe to drop began with the American manufacturing boom in the late 19th century. In large cities like New York, apartment housing became common. These dwellings were all built with similar designs, with bedrooms typically located above one another. It was common to be awoken late at night by a neighbor removing their shoes in the apartment above. The person below would often wake when the first shoe dropped on the floor and made a loud bang. Already disturbed, the person would then wait for the inevitable noise of the other shoe hitting the floor.”