DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency is investigating complaints that engines can fail on as many as 1.4 million Honda and Acura vehicles.
The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers the 2016 through 2020 Honda Pilot and Acura MDX, as well as the 2018 through 2020 Honda Odyssey and Acura TLX. Also included is the 2017 through 2019 Honda Ridgeline.
The agency says in documents posted on its website Monday that connecting rod bearings on vehicles with 3.5-liter V6 engines can fail, leading to complete engine failure. Connecting rods link the pistons to the crankshaft and convert vertical motion to move the wheels.
Honda recalled about 250,000 vehicles in November of 2023 to fix the same problem. But the agency says it has 173 complaints from owners who reported connecting rod bearing failures, yet their vehicles weren't included in the recall. One owner reported a crash with no injuries.
The agency said it's opening a recall query to determine the severity of the problem in vehicles not included in the 2023 recall.
Honda said it will cooperate with NHTSA on the investigation.
In documents explaining the 2023 recall, the automaker said had 1,450 warranty claims due to the bearing problem but no reports of injuries. Dealers were to inspect and repair or replace the engines if needed.
FILE - People walk near the logo of Honda Motor Company at a showroom on Feb. 8, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — A probe into the military's role in the disappearance of four children in Ecuador this month was delayed for almost two weeks, even though police had access to surveillance videos showing soldiers taking two of the children, The Associated Press has learned.
The case of the children, aged 11 to 15, who went missing on Dec. 8 in the coastal city of Guayaquil after playing a soccer, has struck a nerve in Ecuador, with rights groups and the public demanding information about their whereabouts and asking that the case be investigated as a forced disappearance.
The surveillance video was handed in to authorities a day after the children went missing, two persons familiar with the investigation told the AP. But an investigation of the military’s role in the disappearance was not announced until 15 days later.
The two spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case. The probe only started after the children's families went on local news channels and social media to demand more action from authorities.
The security footage, showing men in military uniform grabbing two boys and driving off with them in a pickup truck, became public earlier this week. The two children in the video are believed to be among the four who disappeared that night.
On Tuesday, four badly charred bodies were found near an air force base in the city of Taura, officials said, and they were looking into whether the bodies could be of the missing children.
Later that day, 16 soldiers from the base were arrested. Investigators said it could take up to a month to confirm if the bodies are of the children because their fingerprints had been burnt off and forensic workers will have to extract DNA fragments from bones or teeth for identification purposes.
The soldiers are due to appear at a hearing next Tuesday, where they are expected to be charged with the forced disappearance of the children, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Ecuador’s Defense Minister, Gian Carlo Lofffredo said Thursday that the 16 soldiers will also be questioned by a military tribunal and that the patrol linked to the disappeared children had not been authorized by officers at the Taura base.
Ecuador’s police deferred questions from the AP about the videos to the national prosecutor’s office, which declined to respond. The Ministry of Defense and the Ecuadorean army also did not respond to questions about the footage.
Violence in Ecuador intensified in January after a gang leader escaped from prison amid deadly riots. Two days later, members of another drug gang attacked a television channel and interrupted a live broadcast to make demands to the government.
President Daniel Noboa's government has leaned on the military to curb gang violence . However, the military has now been implicated in several abuses, including the disappearance of two children in August in the central province of Los Rios, and the case of a 19-year-old who was fatally shot by the military at a checkpoint on a road in Guayaquil.
Noboa has promised to reduce violence as he prepares to run for reelection in February.
But many Ecuadorians have expressed their discontent as the homicide rate has tripled in the South American country since 2021, and extortion by drug gangs has forced thousands of people to migrate to the United States.
People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. The sign reads in Spanish "Where are our children? The four from Guayaquil, Ecuador." (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
People protest outside the prosecutor's office against the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
A mural of a child and the Spanish message "Where are they?" cover a wall in protest of the disappearance of four children who were last seen on Dec. 8 running away from a military convoy in Guayaquil, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Cesar Munoz)
