After failing to get proper explanation from Takata, Honda Motor started conducting its own tests to find out reasons for airbag explosion with used and scrapped cars in Japan.
The company was forced to take the step because Takata was unable to provide a proper explanation about the incidents which killed five people, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
In the first half of 2014 the Japanese car maker conducted tests of 100-150 Takata air bags at Honda's quality center near Utsunomiya, Tokyo.
Reuters reported an unnamed insider as saying: "We doubted if Takata was producing air bags to the specifications we had mutually agreed on.
"When we did not receive a clear analysis of what was happening, we decided to conduct our own tests ... and we found the quality of those inflators to be all over the map in term of key quality metrics."
Takata denied Honda's allegations and said that the car maker did not inform any quality problems found in the vehicles to Takata.
The insiders said that the tests could not find out the actual cause of the defect but it revealed that there were manufacturing quality issues which could have triggered the problem.
Honda's chief spokesman Kaoru Tanaka also confirmed about the quality tests conducted by the company. But it is not known if the company conducted similar tests in US.
Image: Honda Headquarters. Photo:courtesy of Rs1421/Wikipedia.
