A two-year study looking for possible causes behind Toyota’s rash of unintended acceleration issues has put primary blame on driver error — but the review by the National Academy of Sciences also cautioned that some problems may have been caused by inadvertent interactions involving vehicle electronics — an issue frequently cited by the automaker’s critics.

Though there was no hard evidence of specific electronic defects, the 139-page report cautioned that “the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” Warning electronic faults may be “untraceable,” it calls for stricter government involvement in setting standards for the use of electronic control vehicle systems.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — General Motors is recalling the Chevrolet Volt to make changes that it says will help prevent fires from coolant leaks which may follow a severe side impact.

Coolant leaks days after National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side crash tests caused several fires.

The fires were sparked when the cars were being slowly rotated as part of a post-test procedure causing the coolant to come into contact with circuit boards. The cars’ batteries were still charged at the time.

The recall applies to all of the approximately 8,000 Volts on the road today. Dealers will also make changes on cars on their lots awaiting delivery to customers.

General Motors Co said it is recalling almost 20,000 Cadillac SRX crossover vehicles, mostly in China and the United States, due to potential transmission defects.

GM’s Chinese joint venture, Shanghai GM, is recalling 9,862 of the compact luxury SUVs in that country, while GM is recalling 8,789 in the United States. A small number in 20 other countries are also affected, a GM spokesman said.

Shanghai GM is a joint venture between GM and SAIC Motor Corp.

The vehicles affected in the recall are from the 2010 and 2011 model years, and were built at GM’s Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico.

Hundreds of thousands of Honda vehicles sold the United States are being recalled or will be inspected by the company because their airbags could potentially explode causing injury or death, the company said.

In a notice posted in a PDF file on its website, the American Honda Co. said it was expanding a previously announced recall to include some 273,000 of certain 2001-2003 model Honda and Acura vehicles to replace the airbag.

“Affected driver’s airbag inflators may deploy with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury or fatality,” the message said.

It also said airbag service parts were sold for installation in an unknown number of vehicles for collision repair or other service.

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide — mostly in the United States — for problems that could make it harder to steer.

The recall affects 447,000 vehicles in North America, as well as 38,000 in Japan and another 25,000 in Australia and New Zealand, said Toyota spokesman Dion Corbett. In Europe some 14,000 vehicles are being recalled along with 10,000 in the Middle East and 14,000 in Asia outside Japan.

Toyota has received a total of 79 reports about the defect dating back to 2007, said Corbett. There have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problems, he said.

Volkswagen is recalling 168,275 Audis, Golfs and Jettas for problems with the fuel line that could lead to leakage and perhaps ignite a fire, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Thursday.

In documents filed with NHTSA, Volkswagen said the fuel line in the recalled vehicles could develop cracks and leak under certain conditions. Because the leaks could happen near an ignition source, there’s the potential for a fire, VW said.

It said the models affected include:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Honda said Monday that it will recall 1 million cars globally to fix an electrical problem and a software glitch.

The company is recalling 936,000 cars worldwide from its Fit and CR-V lines to replace the master switch for the cars’ power windows. A design flaw can allow residue from window cleaners to accumulate, which over time can degrade the switch’s electrical contacts and potentially cause a fire. No injuries have been reported from the problem, which affects 80,111 cars in the United States from the CR-V’s 2006 model year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The number of drug shortages is at a record high, and the Food and Drug Administration is warning that they are getting even worse.

Fueling the problem are shortages of raw materials. Also, drugmakers are discontinuing older, and off-patent drugs in favor of newer and more profitable ones, and issuing large recalls of drugs due to quality problems, the agency said.

In 2010, 178 drug shortages were reported to the FDA. These include cancer drugs, anesthetics used in surgery, a large number of “sterile injectables” — medicines that are given intravenously — and “crash cart” drugs used in emergency treatments.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The adult Tylenol that was recalled this week was made at the same shuttered Fort Washington plant that produced all of Johnson & Johnson’s problematic children’s Tylenol medicines, CNNMoney confirmed Tuesday.

On Monday, Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ, Fortune 500) McNeil drugmaking unit announced a new recall of 127,728 bottles of Tylenol 8 Hour caplets 50 count bottles after receiving comsumer complaints of a “musty,” “moldy” odor.

BERLIN — BMW’s recall of nearly 200,000 luxury vehicles in the U.S. to fix leaks that could develop in the power braking system may extend to another 150,000 cars of the same series around the globe, a spokesman said Friday.

Globally, some 345,000 BMWs of the 5 Series, 6 Series and 7 Series vehicles powered by V8 and V12 engines and almost 6,000 Rolls Royce Phantom models could be affected by the problem, BMW AG spokesman Frank Strebe said.

He stressed there have been no reports of accidents or injuries.

DES MOINES, Iowa – U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site.

The USDA employees worked next to areas where roughly 7.7 million caged hens laid eggs at the two operations, but agency spokesman Caleb Weaver said their main duties are “grading” the eggs and they aren’t primarily responsible for looking for health problems.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors is recalling a total of 243,403 of its popular large crossover SUVs for a problem that could damage the rear seatbelt buckles. Most of the recalled vehicles are in the United States.

In some of the vehicles, the seatbelt buckle can be damaged when the second row seat is returned to its normal position after being folded down.

If this happens the seatbelt may not latch completely even when it seems to be securely buckled. The seat belt also may not latch or unlatch or may seem to be jammed, GM said.