Honda Recalls Some 2012 Civics on Fuel Leak Risk

Honda Motor Co’s American branch has recalled about 1,500 current model Civic compact cars in North America due to a fuel leak risk that could lead to a vehicle fire, the company and U.S. federal safety regulators said Friday.

The popular Civic is in short supply in North America because of the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake in Japan. Honda on Thursday said June is going to be the low point for dealer inventory of the venerable compact.

In the United States, 1,156 Civic were recalled. On Thursday, Honda Canada announced a recall of 377 Civic compacts.

The Civics recalled were assembled from April 21 to May 2.

Honda said that 17 percent of the U.S. vehicles contain the defect.

Honda Canada said only two of the affected vehicles were sold to consumers. No similar figure was available for U.S. sales.

Honda will notify affected Civic owners by the end of next week to bring their cars to Honda dealerships for inspection, and, if needed, will replace the fuel feed lines free of charge, the automaker said.

A fuel leak could occur if an O-ring that seals the fuel feed line is misaligned, according to a filing with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There were no reports of fires, crashes or injuries. The issue was noticed on April 29 when a Honda production worker noticed a fuel smell on a new Civic, Honda told regulators.

The fuel line at issue was made by a Honda supplier, records show.

In April in the U.S. market, Civic was the No. 3 selling car, behind only the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Accord.