Honda recalls 1.5 million vehicles over transmission problem

Honda has announced a recall of 1.5 million vehicles in the United States and another 1 million mostly in China and Canada due to problems with the automatic transmission.

The Honda recall is one of the Japanese automaker's largest ever, and is equivalent in size to 70 percent of the 3.5 million vehicles sold by Honda last year, according to the Financial Times.

The company said that while it was not aware of any accidents or deaths caused by the problem, it is undertaking the recall because of incidents where the vehicles’ secondary shaft broke while drivers were shifting quickly between drive and reverse mode, the FT says.

The automatic transmission problem could cause a misalignment of the gear shaft and the vehicle’s engine could stall, the company said. It could also cause abnormal noise.

Honda said on its U.S. and China websites that the voluntary recall includes the 2005-2010 model year of Honda’s Accord, its 2007-2010 Honda CR-V, 2005-2008 Honda Element, 2005-2009 Honda Odyssey, as well as the 2010 Honda Spirior, the Chinese version of the Accord compact car.

A smaller number of cars are being recalled in the Middle East, Latin American and elsewhere.

U.S. safety officials said earlier this week that Ford was recalling 1.1 million pickup trucks because of problems with the straps holding the trucks’ fuel tanks in place, which were prone to corrosion under certain conditions including salt-covered roads during winter.

Honda has now recalled more than six million vehicles since February 2010 due to a variety of different issues, Agence France-Presse says.