Honda CR-Vs are great sport utility vehicles, just as long as you don’t drive them out in the rain.
Honda said today it’s recalling nearly a half-million of the vehicles from model years 2002-2006 in the United States and Europe after discovering rain water can enter the SUV’s power window switch on the driver’s side door and make it overheat and catch on fire, Reuters is reporting.
Honda and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the recall for 268,000 of the vehicles in the United States, and Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando said in Tokyo Sunday the recall also affects 220,000 CR-Vs in Europe and 98 in Africa.
There have already been reports of five switch fires, but nobody’s been injured. Honda didn’t say how much it would cost to recall the popular vehicles.
The NHTSA said CR-V owners should park their vehicles outside until the repairs are performed, because a fire can start even if the ignition is off and the vehicle is parked. Honda spokesman Ed Miller, though, said the switch is not likely to catch on fire unless someone directly spills liquid on the lock or a large amount of rain comes in through the driver’s side window.
Honda will repair the door problem for free. This adds more woes to the Japanese automaker, as it announced two other major recalls in the past week alone.
The automaker recalled more than 600,000 Accords in North America because of a potential power steering fluid leak that could cause a fire under the cars’ hoods.
In addition, Honda’s recalling 820,000 Civic compact and Pilot SUVs from 2002-2004 because the headlights can fail. CR-Vs were recalled this past spring for the same problem.