Honda Motor Co. on Thursday announced that it has expanded its previous recall of certain types of Honda and Acura vehicles in order to replace the driver's airbag inflator.

The car company previously issued a recall for certain 2001 through 2003 model-year Honda and Acura vehicles. It noted that the driver's airbag inflator was originally installed in approximately 273,000 additional vehicles sold in the U.S.

Affected driver's airbag inflators may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury or fatality, a Honda press release stated.

Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that the propellant was packed improperly.

That allows the propellant to burn off too quickly and it explodes and pieces of the casing are causing the injuries, Martin said.

The Honda recall now includes certain 2001 and 2002 Accord, 2001 to 2003 Civic, 2001 to 2003 Odyssey, 2002 and 2003 CR-V, 2003 Pilot, 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2 CL vehicles.

Honda has said it is aware of several incidents connected to this recall and expansions. It added that the announcement of the recall expansion is to encourage all owners of those vehicles to take their vehicle to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive mailed notification from Honda.

Martin informed The New York Times that the automaker was aware of 18 injuries and two deaths in connection. Honda has had four expansion of a recall, beginning in 2008 with 3,900 Civics and Accords from the 2001 model year, according to The NY Times.

The car company will begin notifying the expanded group of customers later this month.

Honda owners can go to the Web site www.recalls.honda.com or call (800) 999-1009 and select option 4; Acura owners can go to www.recalls.acura.com or call (800) 382-2238 and select option 4.

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