Up to two million vehicles in the USA could be affected, with models sold in Australia also likely to face a recall notice.
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Continental says any malfunction will cause the air bag control computer to shut down, and that will trigger a dashboard warning light.
On Wednesday, Honda also announced a recall of 364,787 vehicles worldwide for separate airbag issues.
That risk with Takata airbags has been at the center of a massive safety action that has led to the recall of tens of millions of vehicles worldwide and has continued to grow in recent weeks. At this time, only a preliminary listing of the potential vehicle identification numbers (VIN) to be included in this recall is available.
Honda is recalling another 440,000 cars in Japan over air bag inflators made by Takata that can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle. The airbags have been the cause of 10 deaths so far although no death or injuries caused by the PSDI-5 airbag inflator that Honda is recalling right now have been reported.
Honda has told its dealers that replacement parts are in very short supply and can only be ordered for vehicles with crash damage or with airbag issues.
Fewer than 2 million vehicles in the USA are affected, said Continental, a division of Germany-based Continental AG. (Honda) is recalling certain model year 2008-2010 Accord vehicles. The second round of notifications will begin with older model year vehicles and will expand accordingly as more replacement parts become available.
On Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Sens. The figure could soon approach 25 million in the US alone, according to several industry observers.
The Italian-U.S. auto maker said it was aware of seven minor injuries possibly tied to the problem, but no accidents.
US Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, denounced what he called “the never-ending flow of piecemeal recall announcements for Takata air bags”, which he said “needs to end”. There is still ongoing work. “As a supplier, we have provided all the pertinent information to all potentially impacted vehicle manufacturers”.
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Consistent with Takata’s earlier filings, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association says the driver’s-side airbag inflators can deploy with too much force and rupture, sending metal fragments into occupants.
