The 2002 Honda Accord has 6 recalls, the most serious being the Takata airbag inflators on both the driver and passenger sides, which can rupture in a crash and send metal fragments into the cabin, causing serious injury or death.
The airbag issue spans multiple filings but describes the same defect: the frontal airbag inflators can explode with excessive force, and prior repair attempts did not fully resolve the problem for all affected vehicles. On V6-equipped models, there is also a timing belt concern where a misaligned tensioner pulley can cause the belt to contact a bolt on the cylinder head, wear through, and eventually snap, stalling the engine without warning. Rounding out the list, the ignition switch interlock can fail to require the transmission to be in Park before the key is removed, which means a driver who forgets to set the parking brake could find the vehicle rolling away.