Any hope of a proposed class-action lawsuit for faulty window regulators in certain Acure vehicles has fizzled after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the proposal in a 2-to-1 ruling. The plaintiff argued that Honda, parent company of Acura, installed window regulators that are insufficiently strong and insufficiently durable to withstand the forces required to perform [their] intended function. Functions like making sure the dang window doesn't fall into the door, for example.
Over 2.4 million Honda and Acura vehicles are being recalled to replace the Takata non-azide driver-side inflators (NADI) found in certain 1997–2003 models. NADI inflators are similar, but somehow even more dangerous to previously recalled Takata products. Both may explode on deployment due to excess moisture build-up, but non-azide inflators can also fail to fully inflate the airbags in a crash.
When Honda and Acura recalled 1.1 million Takata airbag inflators for exploding into pieces, they replaced the defective part with a slightly different version from the same company. Now those are exploding too. The replacement PSDI-5D desiccated inflators were exposed to excess moisture during assembly. This rapidly degrades the propellant and allows pressure to build up over time, turning the inflator into a mini-grenade that explodes during airbag deployment.
Acura CL News and Notes
Bite-sized content about all the recalls, lawsuits, and investigations surrounding the Acura CL.