While I regularly trust my car’s airbags with my life, they’re still kind of scary to me. I know airbags are precisely engineered to keep you from smacking hard parts of the car in a crash, but, at the end of the day, they’re still explosive devices that surround you in your car at all times. At the back of my mind, I always consider the possibility they could go off without warning, even though I know the likelihood of that happening is extremely low.
For owners of over 440,000 Honda Odyssey minivans, the odds of a random airbag explosion while driving are far higher. In fact, they’re so high that Honda has issued a recall to recalibrate the sensors to stop them from going off when you hit a pothole or a speed bump.
According to the recall report, the recall targets the sensor parameters for the second- and third-row area—you know, the place where minivan drivers usually put their children. Apparently, they’re just a bit too sensitive and could activate through normal driving scenarios, rather than just from a crash. From the NHTSA document:
The SRS ECU contains incorrect deployment parameters for the side and side curtain airbags, which may cause inadvertent deployment when the vehicle encounters strong road impacts, such as driving over potholes, speed bumps, or road debris.
[…]
The SRS control logic for the second and third rows contain insufficient deployment threshold margin, allowing G-signal inputs to be misinterpreted as side impacts and causing inadvertent deployment of the side and side curtain airbags.
The control logic comes from a central ECU—specifically part numbers 77960-THR-A020-M2, 77960-THR-A120-M2, or 77960-THR-A220-M2—that’s located under the dashboard. Here’s a photo of what it looks like, in case you’re curious:
The overly sensitive programming might’ve ended up in 440,830 Odyssseys built from January 2017 to June 2022, though the company estimates just o.1% of that population (440 cars) are truly affected. Here’s a video of what the airbags look like when they deploy in a crash, courtesy of the IIHS:
Amazingly, Honda has apparently known about this potential issue for nearly a decade. The recall doc outlines a timeline of events that led up to the recall, with the first investigation launched all the way back in November 2017. In July 2021, it finally came to this conclusion:
Honda’s investigation of incident-related vehicles and returned parts determined that, under certain conditions such as poor road surfaces, driving over debris or undercarriage impacts, the second and third-row airbag deployment thresholds could be reached, resulting in deployment of the side and side curtain airbags.
Despite that, Honda decided in October of that year not to issue a recall because “there were no safety concerns,” which feels … not right. When airbags deploy during a crash, they act as cushioning devices for your body, but when they deploy outside of a crash, they’re like grenade-pillows exploding right next to you. “If the side and side curtain airbags inadvertently deploy, the risk of injury is increased,” according to the recall doc.
It was only in October of 2025 that Honda reopened its investigation, at the request of the NHTSA. And on April 2, it finally decided to issue a recall. As of that date, there were 130 warranty claims and 25 reports of an injury related to this defect.
The fix is pretty simple. Owners will be asked to bring their car to a dealer to have their SRS ECU reprogrammed or replaced with new parameters so that the airbags won’t deploy the next time you hit a speed bump a little too quickly.
If you own an Odyssey that might’ve been produced in the date range mentioned above, I highly recommend running your VIN through the NHTSA’s database to see if your car is affected. Even if you think you’ll never hit a bump big enough to set off the airbags, a random pothole could appear and ruin your day (or worse, injure your passenger).
Top graphic images: Honda; DepositPhotos.com
I would rather a company issue more recalls than less because they hid them or didn’t recall because there weren’t enough injuries/deaths to force them.
Recalls need to be taken seriously. When they come up, you takata do what you takata do.
I am not a fan of airbags. IMO a brute-force solution that causes numerous small injuries and large bills to occasionally prevent a large harm.
I was inside a first gen Ford Focus whose airbags deployed after the front lip hit a raised manhole (not too dissimilar from hitting a pothole, likely less hamrful to the car or its occupants under normal circustances) and that shit is terrifying. In our case it was my older sister behind the wheel, someone who’s never been the most accomplished/confident driver, and she panicked and stepped on the gas instead of the brakes, crashing into a wall on the other side of the road. Thankfully there were no other cars around or much distance for the car to accelerate and hit the wall with dangerous force – and remember, if that had happened, there’d be no protection from the airbags, since they’d just deployed. One of the most terrifying experiences I ever had inside a car.
I’m surprised an airbag deployment doesn’t cut the fuel pump.
Maybe not in a car developed in the late 90s, but then again, maybe it should but didn’t because it was a then 2-decade old Focus that had and still has electrical gremlins every now and then (still my sister’s
dailyweekly driver). Not really sure how advanced the ECU and its failsafes are in a 2000 Focus, but the engine/throttle certainly didn’t cut out on that occasion.On the bright side, the airbags were ready for the wall. Hopefully nobody got hurt!
Makes me think of the guy that took his truck on a steep incline and the airbags went off.
I’m just wondering why that van just looks like it’s going the wrong way…and it reminded me of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Hey, what’s going on?
Some joker wants to race.
Turn around!
Don’t race.
It’s ridiculous.
All right, come on.
Let’s go. Let’s go.
Put your window down!
He wants something.
He’s probably drunk.
You’re going the wrong way!
What?
You’re going the wrong way!
He says we’re going the wrong way.
Oh, he’s drunk.
How would he know where we’re going?
We went pretty easy on Wagon Queen even though the airbag in the Family Truckster would just go off while you were parked in your driveway.
I can never understand why when manufacturers discover these issues even if they don’t want to issue a recall don’t fix the problem going forward.
Trying to picture the reaction if this was GM or Ford, or god forbid Stellantis.
Honda has been coasting on a reputation that IMO they have not deserved for some time now.
*insert company name here* has been coasting on a reputation that IMO they have not deserved for some time now.
FTFY IMO.
And if its bought out by a Venture Capitalist, the company you knew will cease to exist before long. As least the way it was operated until bought out.
Venture capitalists don’t do buyouts. Private equity and other critters do.
I like the idea that airbags going off while you’re driving doesn’t amount to a safety concern. I would have to bet if this happened to me, I’m probably getting into an accident of some sort. Pretty hard to keep your cool, react appropriately, and you know, see the road after getting popped by a collection of airbags.
As for the other manufacturers yeah, people would probably have a whole lot of jokes (a lot of them probably fairly earned). But yeah, if we can be honest with ourselves, Honda is probably closer to the Ford and GM tier than we would normally give them credit for.
I’m not going to be on record defending Stellantis though lol. They’ve clearly reaped what they’ve sown.
To be fair, the driver airbags are not affected. But your point still stands that the driver is going to be distracted if there is an explosion behind their head and their kids are screaming in terror.
Ah I must have missed that part. But yeah, still a pretty crazy distraction.
Yeah, I’ve heard a decent number of rumblings online about Hondas issues lately, and I’ve got a friend with a 2023 Civic Sport hatchback with the base NA engine, and it’s had something like 3 valve cover gasket replacements under warranty, and a full cover replacement. Also weird intermittent and inconsistent oil loss issues, all south of 50k miles. Honda seems to be losing the plot little by little, which is a shame since the current Civic is incredibly compelling on paper. Have a different friend with a 2025 Civic Hybrid Hatch, so time will tell just how well built it is.
I’m still nervous, especially as a wearer of eye glasses. And the old Subaru rallycross cars that both still had OEM steering wheels made me really nervous on bumpy courses.
I thought Takata airbags didn’t go off at all 😛
They do! But so does metal shrapnel.
Yup, my idea was precisely that they went off much like a grenade attached to a steering wheel, not that they failed to deploy.
Yeah, I totally got that one wrong, sorry 🙁
I was at a quality training thing a handful of years ago in IN. ISO-17025 (think ISO9000 but with calibration stuff) had a big new update coming & this was to cover the differences.
I sat across from someone from Takata, right as the big story was going full stream. I felt really bad for him.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh oops 😐