It would appear that the silly season of recalls has already begun at Honda. But instead of airbags, the good old 12-volt battery is the guilty party now. The latest one involves 93,929 cars and Honda Malaysia is prepared to install new batteries to cars that were manufactured way back in 2003! If you have a Honda car, it would be your interest to take a good look at the list of affected models below:
Model Year model
City 2003 – 2014, 2016
Civic 2010, 2012 & 2013
CR-Z 2012 – 2013
CR-V 2013
Freed 2010 – 2012
Insight 2011 – 2013
Jazz 2009, 2012 & 2013, 2015 & 2016
Owners can click here to visit Honda Malaysia’s product update web page and key in the vehicle identification number (also known as the chassis number) to find out if their cars are affected. Additionally, you can also call the toll-free hotline number of 1-800-88-2020 for the same purpose, as well as look out for any correspondence from Honda Malaysia in the mailbox, the physical one.
We’ve tried querying as to the nature of the fault, but very little was revealed by Honda Malaysia except that the affected batteries do not meet specific requirements and might lead to battery damage during engine start-up. However, Honda Malaysia maintains that no injuries or crashes related to this issue has ever been reported in Malaysia, and that this fault is specific to locally-produced batteries.
For some of you who like to play Sherlock, we also noticed that the list above covers some fully-imported models. The reason for this is so that Honda CBU owners who had replaced their original batteries with locally-made Honda batteries from authorised dealers are also covered in the recall. For Honda CKD owners, it’s fine if you had subsequently changed a third-party, non-Honda battery, just as long as the original battery installed at the factory was a faulty one, subject to confirmation by Honda Malaysia, you would have a valid claim to a new one.