VIN stands for "Vehicle Identification Number" and it's specific to your Acura. This set of seventeen letters and numbers is unique to your car, defining its engine size, body style, model year, transmission type, color, and more. All cars newer than 1980 come with a VIN.
Your VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is a small, metal plate attached to the driver's side of your car's dashboard. This small tag should be visible through the windshield for viewing ease. Every vehicle is required to have a VIN with the right placement and it's illegal to remove or alter this tag. If the tag is missing, chances are the car has been repaired, or more likely, stolen.
While your Acura is being worked on, take advantage of our FREE SHUTTLE SERVICEEnter your VIN into the NHTSA VIN-lookup tool to find out if your car is affected.
It could take weeks or possibly months for replacement airbags to arrive, but Takata taken steps to complete requests in a timely fashion.
According to NHTSA, yes. The Takata inflators are vulnerable to persistent high humidity as well as high temperature conditions, in states like Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, the Gulf Coast states, Hawaii, and island territories. Because a number of confirmed deaths have taken place in places outside the priority recall area, this recall shouldn't be taken lightly.
Automakers are receiving the replacement parts as quickly as they can, and most are sending them to the high-humidity areas first. Northern and less-humid areas may have to wait longer for parts availability, depending on the brand. Contact your dealership to find out how fast the work can be performed.
People who travel to the higher-risk areas in low humidity times aren't at the same high level of risk as those who live in those areas year-round, according to NHTSA.
No. Since 2002, only a small number of about 30 million cars have been associated with these incidents. Between November, 2014 and May, 2015, Takata reported to NHTSA that the company had done more than 30,000 ballistic tests on airbag inflators returned prior to the recalls. In those tests, 265 ruptured. That's an extremely high number, and, at 0.8%, a much higher frequency than what has been seen so far in vehicles actually on the road. According to defect reports filed with the government, Takata said that as of May 2015 they were made aware of 84 ruptures that had occurred in the field since 2002.
If the recall on your car involves the front passenger-side airbag, try not to let anyone sit in that seat. But, if you use the VIN-lookup tool and it shows that the problem involves the driver's side, so you should do anything you can to minimize risk. If possible, consider:
Repairs under the recall are done at no charge, but unrelated problems uncovered during the service would not be.