Back in November 2022, the folks at Honda filed safety recall 22V-867 with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 2017 – 2019 Honda Ridgeline over a rearview camera tailgate wire harness that may break from simply opening and closing the tailgate. Supplied by Aptiv US LLC, the harness in question was replaced with an improved assembly at no charge to the owners.
In addition to longer protective corrugated tubing, American Honda Motor also improved the inspection process on the assembly line. Why is that? According to documents published by the federal watchdog, insufficiently tightened zip ties wouldn't keep the tubing in place while opening and closing the tailgate. Prior to announcing the recall, Honda received 3,437 warranty claims in the US from December 2017 to October 2022.
In May 2024, the automaker submitted recall 24V-321 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over – not surprising in the least – rearview camera issues. But on this occasion, affected vehicles were produced for the 2020 through 2024 model years. Honda changed the harness wire supplier in the name of a more robust yet flexible wire. This RVC tailgate wire harness was incorporated into Ridgeline production on May 3, 2024, while vehicles produced from April 25 through May 2 were repaired at the assembly plant prior to shipment.
Since these remedies are not similar, the Office of Defects Investigation opened recall query 24011 into the first recall. To date, the federal agency hasn't received any allegations of rearview camera failure after the remedy was performed.
Even so, the ODI couldn't ignore the material differences of the remedy parts. If there's a case to be made for a new recall, the NHTSA estimates that 129,266 trucks will require new harnesses. By comparison, the affected population listed under safety recall 22V-867 is 117,445 trucks.
Photo: Honda
2017 – 2019 Honda Ridgeline owners who had the remedy performed on their unibody pickups yet experienced rearview camera failure should file a complaint with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Any information would help the investigator in charge of this recall query come to a verdict in a timelier fashion.
The Ridgeline is one of a handful of unibody pickup trucks available in the United States, the others two being Ford's compact-sized Maverick and Hyundai's poor-selling Santa Cruz. All three are based on crossover platforms, with the Ridgeline being technically similar to the three-row Pilot and the two-row Passport crossover.
Advertised as being a fuel-efficient midsizer even though 21 miles to the gallon (11.2 liters per 100 kilometers) is worse than the four-wheel-drive Ford Ranger's 22 mpg (10.7 l/100 km), the Ridgeline is a six-cylinder affair that features all-wheel drive by default. Connected to a nine-speed auto versus a tenner for the Ford Motor Company's body-on-frame midsizer, the Ridgeline develops 280 ponies at 6,000 rpm.
Torque isn't too shabby either at 262 pound-feet (355 Nm) at 4,700 revolutions per minute, whereas towing and payload capacities are rated at 5,000 and 1,583 pounds (2,268 and 718 kilograms). However, starting at $39,750 makes the Ridgeline quite a bit pricier than the more capable Ranger ($32,720 with rear-wheel drive or $3,645 extra with four-wheel drive). Worse still, you can get a far more frugal truck for far less money by going compact with the Maverick (26 mpg for the 2.0L EcoBoost at $23,920 from the outset or 37 for the 2.5L Hybrid at $25,420).
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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