The 2004 Honda Civic has 7 recalls, the most serious being a Takata airbag defect affecting both the driver and front passenger inflators, which can explode and send metal fragments into the cabin, causing serious injury or death.
All five airbag-related recalls trace back to the same underlying problem: the frontal airbag inflators can rupture during deployment. One additional airbag concern involves front passenger airbags that may have been incorrectly installed during a prior replacement, which can cause the bag to deploy improperly in a crash and raise the risk of injury. On the restraint side, some front seatbelt anchors were fitted with an incorrect washer that restricts how the anchor moves, which can leave the belt poorly positioned across the occupant's body and reduce its effectiveness in a crash.