Toyota US floor mat recall continues

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By Matt Brogan | November 26th, 2009

As predicted by CarAdvice last week, Toyota today confirmed that it will reshape or replace 3.8 million accelerator pedals to fix its unintended acceleration issue.

In its largest ever US recall, Toyota said it will redesign the accelerator pedals and the floor mats to reduce the risk of them jamming each other.

Toyota spokesman, Mike Michels, said the redesign involves removing the one-piece pedal assembly and cutting 20mm off the bottom and another small amount from the width of the pedal face.

“That’s a simple matter. It doesn’t affect any of the pedal assembly,” he said.

And as an “extra measure of confidence”, it will fit a brake override system throughout the Toyota and Lexus ranges, starting with the Camry and ES 350 in January 2010 and spreading to most new models by the end of the year.

The override system shuts off the engine if both the accelerator and the brake are pressed down simultaneously.

The vehicles affected include the 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Avalon, 2004-2009 Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma and 2007-2010 Tundra.

The 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS 350 are also among those to be recalled.

Toyota said it will start notifying drivers before the end of this year and will begin to repair the problem from April.

Until then it has encouraged owners to remove driver floor mats and not replace them with any others.

The recall seemingly brings an end to a long running investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with more than 2000 reports of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles since the year 2000, with as many as 19 deaths and 200 accidents linked to the problem.

The recall does not affect vehicles sold in Australia.

by Tim Beissmann

AB

Does this mean you can’t left foot brake any more??
Doesn’t sound too smart if the engine shuts down everytime you touch both the accellerator and teh brake!!
Ken

Not real smart to shut the engine off every time both pedals are pressed together. Lot’s of insurance claims coming through because of stupid Toyota drivers being rear ended when their car decides to stop in the middle of the road because they pressed both pedals. Educate the drivers that buy these cars instead.

Marcoz

Amen 2 that ken…..

why is their no such a prob in australia?….we have the same cars same mats….?

Lion

Why would Toyota add the engine cut-off feature is this is only a floormat/acc pedal issue? Surely the “fix” to existing cars has been engineered to news cars – don’t they think that they got it right.

THIS SMACKS OF A COVER-UP FOR A FAR MORE SERIOUS PROBLEM!!!!!
mike

I used to have a Lexus that the pedal would get stuck in the floor mat too. It was scary enough that I took the mats out completely. I’m assuming the Dealers will get the recall work done before they resell any of these cars. I know that there are a lot of orphaned Toyota’s out there too (see: http://www.repofinder.com ) that need the recall done before some guy buys one then drives it through the back of his garage. Always get a Carfax and check for warranty work before you buy.
Andrew M

Ive never actually taken that good of a look at the pedals in any of these vehicles.

Upon viewing these pics, I cant believe the pedals go that close to the ground in the first place.

Ive had mats curl up right behind pedals before yet they never affected their use.
Thats just poor design having them that low

Cupid Stunt

Quite agree Andrew, an old problem raises it’s head again. Seems so simple to design a decent pedal system a la VW bottom hinged accelerator pedal.
On a similar note both Opel and Ford suffered handbrake failures in recent years when handbrakes ‘let go’. You wouldn’t think a simple thing that was included in car production for decades could cause potentially catastrophic consequences.

Nightshifter

I think it meant the engine would only shut off if both pedals are pressed DOWN! like floored! It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.
http://autonettv.com/ Lance Boldt

Here’s a short video from AutoNetTV on how to find recall information.

http://autonettv.com/2009/finding-vehicle-recall-information.html
http://www.CarZ.com CarZ

This sounds like a simply issue to resolve. Why is Toyota still dealing with it? It amazes me how automakers can take there time on some of the most ridiculous stuff. Clearly, they can’t see the money lost on this stupidity. These are car accidents just waiting to happen.