If you drive an older Honda or Acura, you may need to immediately replace its airbag inflator

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is instructing owners of 313,000 older Hondas and Acuras to stop what they're doing and replace the Takata airbag inflators inside their cars.

"These vehicles are unsafe and need to be repaired immediately," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement on Thursday. "Folks should not drive these vehicles unless they are going straight to a dealer to have them repaired." The advisory is for 2001 and 2002 Honda Civics and Accords, 2002 and 2003 Acura TL, 2002 Honda Odyssey and CR-V, and 2003 Acura CL and Honda Pilot. The older the vehicle, the more time the inflator has spent in heat and humidity, and that makes them more likely to malfunction, The Associated Press reports.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has conducted tests on inflators taken from older Hondas owned by people living near the Gulf Coast, and about half of them blew apart. If an inflator explodes, it spews metal fragments into the vehicle, potentially killing or injuring the driver and any passengers. To see if your car is part of the recall, visit safercar.gov and enter your vehicle identification number.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up