Honda just revealed a new electric SUV, but now it must turn its attention back to older products, with its 15th safety recall of the year affecting 635,808 sedans and SUVs from both Honda itself and luxury sub-brand Acura. The good news is that it’s not a mechanical issue, but the bad news is that, as of last month, Honda had already received one report of an (unknown) injury related to the issue, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says lies in the power-steering system, so it’s something that needs to be resolved as soon as possible. Three products are affected: Acura TLX, Acura MDX, and Honda Pilot. In other words, some of the Honda empire’s most popular vehicles, hence the large recall population.
Honda/Acura Steering Recall Affects Hundreds of Thousands
Autoblog
The NHTSA recall report, which was submitted at the end of October (recall 26V721 refers), reveals that Honda thinks every single vehicle in the recall has the defect, described as an improper electronic power steering (EPS) software configuration. This causes the EPS system to enter failsafe mode under certain operating conditions, disabling assistance and illuminating warning lights on the cluster. It’s unclear how difficult steering effort becomes, but this obviously increases the risk of a crash. Affected model years and their volumes are listed below.
- 2021-2025 Acura TLX – 75,598 units
- 2022-2024 Acura MDX – 177,100 units
- 2023-2025 Honda Pilot – 383,110 units
The issue first came to Honda’s attention in November 2021, but that could have looked like a random glitch, and it wasn’t until nearly two years later, between August 2023 and August 2025, that Honda finally began getting similar reports. The problem was that when the vehicles were brought into Honda or Acura dealerships, no clues to the cause could be discovered. Like IT technicians telling you to “turn it off and on again” when you have an issue with your desktop, workshop technicians did what they always do before taking apart or replacing anything: clear the fault codes logged by the ECU to see if they return. And even when they did replace parts and send old ones back to HQ, nothing could be gleaned because the problem turned out not to be hardware-related.
Honda Developing a Fix, Owners Must Visit Dealers
Honda
Honda couldn’t be sure of the cause until February 2026, when it could confirm that the issue is specific to certain operating conditions and, thankfully, only rears its head when the vehicle is driving straight. Further analysis of potential causes and symptoms continued until last month, when Honda finally issued the recall. Unfortunately, owners will have to wait until December 14 to get news of a fix, which will involve visiting a dealer and having the EPS control unit reprogrammed with new software.
