DETROIT, March 19 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co said on Thursday it will add more than 100,000 vehicles to a U.S. recall related to potentially defective air bags made by Takata Corp that can deploy with too much force and spray occupants with metal shards.
The Japanese automaker said this expansion of a December 2014 recall affects 104,871 Honda vehicles in the United States, including 88,549 Pilot SUVs from the 2008 model year, 10,868 2004 Civic cars and 5,454 2001 Accord sedans. While some 2001 Accord and 2004 Civic cars were previously recalled, no 2008 Pilots had been up to now.
Honda said it identified the additional affected vehicles after further studying which models had been originally equipped with affected Takata air bag inflators.
The air bag recall has affected about 25 million vehicles at several automakers globally since 2008. The faulty part has been linked to at least six deaths and dozens of injuries.
Honda, which launched a U.S. advertising campaign on Monday urging owners to replace recalled air bags, said it has not received any claims of air bag inflator rupture in the Pilot SUVs.
With the expansion, a total of about 5.5 million vehicles will be covered, the company said. The repair, replacement of the driver front air bag inflator at no cost, remains the same. (Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)