Buying a Used Honda or Acura in the 26V332 Airbag-Sensor Recall? Check Deployment History by VIN First

Key facts

• Campaign: NHTSA Recall No. 26V332 (full ID 26V332000); an expansion of the 2024 parent recall 24V064 (same defect, 750,000+ vehicles).
• Vehicles involved: 98,892 ("nearly 100,000"), across Honda and Acura. An estimated 1% are expected to contain the defect.
• Model-year span: 2016–2026, across roughly a dozen Honda nameplates plus three Acura nameplates (23 model/body-style entries in the NHTSA filing).
• Defect: A capacitor in the front passenger seat weight sensor's printed circuit board can crack and short from humidity exposure. The sensor is part of the Occupant Classification System (OCS) that decides whether to suppress the front passenger airbags.
• Risk (precise wording): In a crash, the front passenger frontal and knee airbags may deploy despite the presence of a small occupant (an infant in a child seat, a child, or a person smaller than a 5th-percentile adult female) for whom deployment should be suppressed — increasing injury risk.
• Warning sign: SRS warning light illuminated and the passenger airbag indicator stays off.
• No driving restriction: No do-not-drive or park-outside advisory is in effect; the risk only manifests in an actual crash.
• Injuries: As of May 14, 2026, there were 228 warranty claims and zero reported injuries or deaths in the US.
• Remedy: An authorized Honda/Acura dealer replaces the seat weight sensor free of charge. Dealer notification on or about May 22, 2026; owner notification on or about July 6, 2026.
• Honda/Acura recall line: 888-234-2138.

What is the Honda/Acura 26V332 airbag-sensor recall?

Recall 26V332 covers about 98,892 Honda and Acura vehicles whose front passenger seat weight sensor can fail. A capacitor on the sensor's printed circuit board may crack and create an internal short circuit after exposure to environmental humidity. That sensor feeds the Occupant Classification System, which tells the airbag control unit whether someone in the front passenger seat is large enough to safely take a full airbag deployment.

The root cause traces to a supply-chain change: after a natural disaster at a tier-2 supplier's plant, the tier-1 supplier (Aisin Electronics Illinois, LLC, in Marion, IL) temporarily switched the base material of the sensor's circuit board. The alternate material was not sufficiently validated and allowed extra strain, cracking the capacitor. Honda corrected production by reverting to the original board material on sensors built on or after January 7, 2022. The affected parts are the "Sensor Assy, Weight" (P/N 81167-T2F-L012-M1 / 81168-T2F-L012-M1).

This campaign is an expansion of the February 2024 recall 24V064, which covered the same defect on 750,000+ vehicles. Honda identified the additional ~98,892 units after finding three scoping errors: a supplier miscalculated the production end date, a part-to-vehicle correlation was inaccurate, and the verification of vehicles that received defective service/replacement parts was inadequate.

Do the airbags go off randomly, or only in a crash?

The airbags do not fire randomly while you park or drive. Despite headlines describing "unintended deployment," the precise NHTSA Part 573 wording is a failure to suppress: in the event of a crash, the front passenger frontal and knee airbags may deploy even when a small occupant is present (an infant in a child seat, a child, or someone smaller than a 5th-percentile adult female) for whom the system should have suppressed deployment.

In practical terms, the defect endangers small occupants and children specifically, and only during an actual collision. That is also why there is no do-not-drive advisory: the malfunction has no effect until a crash occurs. The on-dash warning sign of a faulty sensor is the SRS warning light illuminated together with the passenger airbag indicator staying off.

Which Honda and Acura models and years are affected?

The defect spans about a dozen Honda nameplates plus three Acura nameplates, model years 2016–2026. Outlets sometimes say "13 Honda model lines" by counting Civic body styles and hybrids separately; the NHTSA filing actually lists 23 model/body-style entries. The table below shows each entry and its potentially-involved unit count.

The single-unit and 5-unit entries (2017–2018 Civic Type R; 2023 and 2025 Ridgeline; 2023 TLX) are stragglers swept in by the service-part corrections, not separate model lines. Membership in the recall is per-VIN, so a specific car of an affected model year may or may not be included — confirm by VIN.

How do I check if my used Honda or Acura is in this recall?

Check by VIN, because not every car of an affected model and year is included. The authoritative, real-time sources are the regulator and the manufacturer:

1. NHTSA's free recall lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls — enter the 17-character VIN to see open recalls, including 26V332 (note: NHTSA VIN searchability can lag the filing by days or weeks).
2. owners.honda.com (Honda/Acura recall lookup) or the Honda/Acura recall line, 888-234-2138.

A Zilocar VIN check can also flag that a recall exists on the car, the same way NHTSA's free tool shows recall presence. What no third-party report can do is confirm whether the dealer has actually performed the 26V332 repair — see the section below on what a VIN check can and can't tell you.

How to check if a used car had an airbag deployed before you buy

To check whether a used car had an airbag deployed, run the VIN through a vehicle history report and read the accident/damage records, which include airbag-deployment status along with the crash's location, type, and severity. A deployed airbag is a permanent mark in a car's history and a strong signal the vehicle took a significant impact.

This often matters more to a used buyer than the recall notice itself. A prior airbag event — whether from a failed suppression in a real crash, or from any other collision — tells you the car was hit hard enough to fire the restraints, and the quality of the repair afterward is what you are really buying. A deployed-airbag vehicle can also be totaled and rebuilt, so cross-reference these signals:

• Airbag-deployment status and accident severity/location/type.
• Junk and salvage auction records (a deployed-airbag car can be written off and rebuilt).
• Odometer/rollback history.
• Ownership history and sales-listing history (past prices, mileage, days-on-market — a useful tell when a damaged car keeps getting relisted).

For any car flagged with a deployment, have a qualified technician verify that the airbags, SRS module, and the front passenger seat weight sensor are present and functioning before you buy — and confirm the SRS warning light behaves normally.

What a VIN check can and can't tell you here

A VIN check is strongest on the durable history angle and on recall screening — not on proving a specific recall was fixed. Cede remedy, investigation, and dealer-firmware confirmation to NHTSA and the dealer. Here is the honest split for this story:

The bottom line: a VIN check never proves a recall was remedied, never tracks an investigation, and shows salvage/junk auction records rather than the legal title brand. Use it to surface the car's accident and deployment history and to screen for recall presence; use NHTSA or a dealer to confirm the 26V332 fix.

Before you put money down on a used Honda or Acura, you can run the VIN through Zilocar to surface its airbag-deployment and accident records, odometer history, salvage-auction records, ownership and sales-listing history, and whether a recall is open on the car — then take that to NHTSA or a dealer to confirm the 26V332 sensor was actually replaced.

Should I avoid a used Honda or Acura with this recall?

Not necessarily. The 26V332 remedy is a free dealer sensor replacement, and as of May 14, 2026 there were zero reported injuries or deaths tied to the defect. If the car you want is on the list, treat the open recall as a free to-do item: confirm remedy status with NHTSA or a dealer and have the sensor replaced if it hasn't been.

What should weigh more heavily is the car's accident and airbag-deployment history. A recall that's been fixed is routine; a prior airbag deployment with an unclear repair, a salvage-auction record, or an odometer discrepancy is the kind of finding that should change your offer — or your decision.

Sources

• NHTSA Part 573 Safety Recall Report 26V332 (official PDF) — defect, consequence, 98,892 count, full model table, chronology, remedy, dates.
• NHTSA recalls lookup by VIN — free regulator tool.
• NHTSA Part 573 — parent recall 24V064 (Feb 2024)
• Honda Owners — official recall lookup & service info
• Consumer Reports — Honda and Acura Recall Nearly 100,000 Vehicles to Fix Airbag Sensors
• Kelley Blue Book — Honda Recalls Nearly 100,000 Vehicles Over Airbag Issue
• NBC News — Nearly 100,000 Honda vehicles recalled over airbag issues
• Fox Business — Honda recalls 99,000 vehicles over airbag flaw

Last verified: 2026-06-04.