ORANGE CITY, Fla. – The mangled white 2003 Honda Accord parked in the front of the M&K Used Auto Parts yard in Orange City is the latest vehicle confirmed to have recalled passenger- and driver-side TAKATA airbags that have been pulled from the local auto recycling market.
Tom McMillon, owner and president of the used auto parts yard, told News 6 he had already collected 30 ,Takata airbag modules from Honda vehicles in the last two weeks, modules that, ironically, weren’t on the original recall list.
“It’s the right thing to do," McMillon told WKMG-TV News 6. “Let’s get them off the street.”
McMillon is a member of FADRA, the Florida Auto Dismantlers & Recyclers Association , a group that is working with Honda as part of a national effort to track and pull “airbag modules that contain recalled TAKATA inflators” from every Honda model between 2002 and 2012.
Chris Martin, spokesman for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., told News 6 that Honda has already
“recovered over 70,000 airbag modules from salvage yards in the U.S.”
According to Martin, the recalled devices are shipped to a secure storage location “for eventual
disposal.”
McMillon told News 6 he first received the call from Honda officials two months ago.
McMillon said the airbag modules found in any vehicles (19 manufacturers are impacted) are pulled and tossed into a cardboard box until they are “collected” by a representative of Rebuilders Automotive Supply (RAS).
According to Martin, RAS buys back recalled TAKATA airbags and then makes sure “they get to Honda, effectively taking them out of the open marketplace.”
“(In) our industry, we’re not supposed to recycle these airbags, they’re supposed to go to the people to get rid of them for us," McMillon told News 6. “There’s a lot of them out there. That’s what worries me.”
Martin told News 6 there is no reason to delay getting the airbags replaced if you see yourvehicle identification number (VIN) is on the recall list.
"Owners should seek repair at an authorized dealer as soon as possible," Martin said. “… The recall repairs are free, we have plenty of replacement parts for all affected Honda and Acura models and, if they need it, we'll even provide a free loaner car to the vehicle's owner for the day of the recall repair."
Using the VIN, it is easy to determine if a vehicle has contained a recalled but unrepaired Takata airbag inflator by visiting www.recalls.honda.com or www.recalls.acura.com.
There are 19 automobile manufacturers impacted by the Takata air bag recall effort.
For a full list of cars affected by the Takata airbag recall, click here.
If you want to know if your car has an open recall, go to https://www.nhtsa.gov/recall-spotlight/takata-air-bags or https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/