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Honda recalling nearly 900,000 Odyssey minivans over fire fear

Honda is recalling nearly 900,000 2005 to 2010 model year Odyssey minivans due to a fault with the fuel pump that could cause them to catch fire.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filling, if exposed to "acidic chemicals and a high temperature environment," the cover of the fuel pump strainer could crack and cause a gasoline smell in the minivan or possibly allow the fuel to leak out. Denso supplied the fuel pumps on the vehicles, and the report says that Honda first began studying the problem in October 2012 but didn't finally confirm the cause until March 6, 2014. The recall affects 886,815 Odysseys, and Honda has received 187 warranty claims related to the issue. However, there have been no fires or injures reported.
Unfortunately, Honda says that it currently doesn't have enough replacement fuel pumps to fix all of the vehicles and doesn't expect to have the parts ready until this summer. It's sending a letter to owners telling them about the recall and is sending a second notification when the pieces are at dealers. The entire notification including affected VINs can be viewed as a PDF here, and the shortened version from the NHTSA can be viewed below.

Takata, Honda sued in Florida over death of pregnant Malaysian women

The Takata recall debacle keeps spiraling as the father of a pregnant woman killed in Malaysia allegedly due to the malfunctioning airbag has filed suit against both the equipment manufacturer and Honda in a court in Florida. The case reportedly revolves around one Law Suk Leh, 42, who was driving her 2003 Honda City on Borneo Island in Malaysia this past July. She was driving at about 20 miles per hour when her car was struck by another. Her airbag deployed with inordinate force, metal shrapnel sliced her neck and she died in the ambulance en route to the local hospital. The baby she was carrying was delivered after the mother's death, but died three days later. Now her father, Law Ngee Chiong, is suing the airbag manufacturer and the automaker on behalf of the estates of his late daughter and granddaughter in a US federal court in Miami. The suit was reportedly filed in the United States because the faulty inflator is made in LaGrange, GA. US District Judge Federico Moreno is currently evaluating about two dozen such personal-injury and death cases, including the one in question, for pretrial rulings and evidence-gathering. Leh's case is one of six deaths blamed on the defective Takata airbags, which have caused automakers and government regulators to recall an estimated 24 million vehicles around the world.

Honda delays JDM Legend over quality concerns

Honda has been having some quality issues lately, to say the least. Most of those have revolved around the airbags supplied by Takata, but not exclusively. The new Fit Hybrid, for example, has been subject to five consecutive recalls in the year since it launched. And now the Japanese automaker is reportedly delaying the launch of its new Legend sedan. The Legend, for those unfamiliar, is what Honda calls the Acura RLX in the Japanese Domestic Market – a model that has been subject to a handful of recalls in the United States, affecting components ranging from headlights to seatbelts to suspension bolts. Such quality control issues have prompted Honda to delay the introduction of its flagship sedan in its home market, pushing its arrival in Japanese showrooms back from the fall (when the model was revealed) initially to January 22 and now to February 20, according to the report from Bloomberg. The extra time is earmarked the give Honda engineers the opportunity to look into potential problems with the vehicle's radar safety system and its advanced hybrid powertrain, before introducing it to the local market. Hopefully further recalls can be avoided once deliveries have commenced.