NHTSA Opens Investigation On 1.4 Million Honda Car Units In The US Over Engine Problems

JAKARTA - The highway safety agency in the United States (US), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that it opened an investigation into 1.4 million Honda cars after receiving reports of serious engine problems.

Launching from Reuters, Wednesday, November 13, the regulator received 173 reports of production defects on the engine engkol axis which could cause aus-coupling rod bearings and were damaged in time, resulting in engine failures in Honda cars and Acura model production 2016-2020.

Honda said on Monday that it was aware of the investigation and had communicated with the agency on the topic and would continue to cooperate with NHTSA through the investigation process.

Previously, the problem had opened a recall involving 249,000 units of Honda cars with 3.5 liters of V6 engines in November 2023.

Honda first opened an investigation into the matter in 2020 and spent several years investigating before announcing a recall.

The automaker said last year that it had 1,450 guarantee claims related to the recall. Based on the recall, dealers are checking the vehicle and will repair or replace the engine if necessary.

NHTSA said the entire 173 reports featured failures that had characteristics similar to those handled in the 2023 recall but were not covered.

The investigation included several vehicle models from Acura consisting of MDX 2016-2020 and TLX 2018-2020 and a number of Honda vehicles consisting of Pilot 2016-2020, Ridgeline 2017-2019, and the Odyssey 2018-2020 model.