Toyota has just announced a major recall affecting several models inlcuding Tacoma and Tundra trucks manufactured in the last 6 years. The driver's side floor mat can shift and jam the accelerator. 5 deaths have been reported.

If you have an affected vehicle remove the driver's side floor mat immediately and contact your dealer for information on the recall.

Read the full news article here...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/0..._toyota_recall

Stay safe everyone.

 

Good thing I bought a couple of those handy dandy clips from the dealer to keep my floor mats in place.

And if you don't know what to do if the accelerator pedal gets stuck you probably shouldn't even be behind the wheel.

 

What's up with the new recall about the pedals? What vehicles are affected?

 

The vehicles affected are the 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.


I talked to my dealer today and they have NO information from Toyota yet as it affected my Tundra but I run Husky Liners anyway so it is a mute point.

 

Ok what I don't get is why they don;t modify the floor mats rahter than modify the gas pedal!

Then again I am sure they thought of that!

 

i know how to fix it

The redneck way
But that sucks that ppl have gotten hurt over a floor mat

 

Funny how no one dies from aftermarket floor mats, which have no retaining clips.

I call operator error. Its really too bad that every time there is a problem with a vehicle, the resulting witch hunt targets the vehicle manufacturer. No one ever seems to blame the owner of the vehicle. Is it really such a wonder that all the vehicles now are boring plastic shells with 400 too many electronic gizmos and restraint systems that would rival NASCAR?

 

Nascar 5pt harnesses are much better than (explosive) airbags and so on but can you imagine the fight to get folks to buckle them up?

 

Seems the article I read had someone traveling 120 mph from a stuck accelerator....crashed and burned and died. YES, IT IS TRAGIC!

Turn off the car perhaps? Put it in neutral? Reach down there and yank the floormat out of the way?

No, let't hack the accelerator pedal. Seems hokie to me too.

I wont' bother with this recall as I got Husky Liners in all my vehicles anwyay.

 

There was an article in the USA today I read. It said there were other factors involved in the deaths. One, on the push button start you have to press and hold the button for 3 seconds to shut the engine off if the car is in drive (driver probably had no idea how to do this, which is understandable) and the design of the shifter makes it difficult to shift into neutral (i dont know about this one)

 

the driver would be too freaked out to take his hands off the wheel for three seconds anyway even if he knew about it...
some of those shifter gates are weird to if the car has one of those tiptronic/manumatic type trans. an ex-boss had an X5 and to put it in manual mode you slid the shifter to the side out of the normal shift gate set making a quick shift to N almost impossible.

 

Also there was mention of the required brake force to stop the car in gear was very high compared to similar vehicles.

 

I was speaking with a co-worker today. Her dad works at a dealership. He said this recall came to be because people were putting the rubber "upgraded" floormat overtop the carpet one. There are some mindless idiots out there and I don't know why we bother, because they'll just find some other way to hurt themselves. I say we remove all the warning labels and let nature take its course.

The brakes in most cars are vacuum-assisted. The vacuum comes from a hose that sticks into the plenum (area behind the throttle plate) and is there because the engine is sucking more air into the cylinders than can get past the little passage that bypasses the throttle plate. When the throttle is wide open, all the air in the world can get past the throttle and the vacuum drops to an insignificant amount because as much air can get into the plenum as can be used by the cylinders. Try applying the brakes at full throttle, first pump or two you'll still have vacuum, but the third or fourth pump, you'll have the same level of braking as if your car was turned off and the brake pedal pumped.

Toyota's problem is that the accelerator is sticky and if the accel. is stuck, then the throttle will be open and the brakes might get a pump of two, but most people will continue pumping the brakes.

IMO- Toyota has gotten way too friggen gimmicky with those stupid start buttons, park assist, etc etc. When my 1987 diesel Landcruiser dies, I won't just blindly buy another Toyota if I buy new, the new stuff isn't much better than domestic crap anymore. It used to be that Toyota sold basic, well made trucks that catered to buyers world-wide. You paid a little more for something that was going to last longer. Now we just get crap meant for the American market where a push-button start or in-car mood-lighting will grab more buyers than 300K service life. Its a sad product of a disposable society I think.

Maybe, just maybe, Toyota will back off the stupid gimics and focus on what *used to make* Toyota synonymous with quality.

Its not even the first time a large car company that was famous for reliable cars fell hard- look at Mercedes. Prior to the late 1990's Merc made fantastic cars, then something happened and quality sucked for 10 years. Its going to take them a long time to build that up again.

/rant

.

 

Merc started assembling in NA in the late 90s and Toyo in the early 90's? LOL