The 2009 Acura RL has 6 recalls, all involving the Takata airbag inflators, where both the driver and passenger frontal airbags can rupture and send metal fragments into the cabin, causing serious injury or death.
All six recalls address the same underlying hazard across the driver and passenger sides. The inflators can explode with enough force to scatter sharp metal shards toward the driver and anyone in the front passenger seat. Some of these recalls are specific to vehicles registered in high-humidity regions, including several southern states, U.S. territories, and Hawaii, where heat and moisture accelerate the degradation that makes rupture more likely. Prior repair attempts did not fully resolve the issue for all affected vehicles, which is why multiple rounds of recalls exist for the same defect.