Category Archives: Toyota

News about Toyota automobile manufacturer. News about Toyota recalls, technical service bulletins (TSB), and problems regarding Toyota vehicles.

Toyota Recall For Steering System Problems

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Toyota announced Thursday that they will be recalling 373,000, 2000-2004 Avalon sedans as well as 39,000 2003-2007 Lexus LX470 SUVs for two unrelated steering system defects.

The defect in the Avalon Sedan is being blamed on an improper casting in a component of the steering lock system. If the steering is turned hard to the right, the component may break, resulting in the steering locking up. There have been six reports of the problem in the U.S. Three resulting in accidents with no injuries.

In the Lexus LX479 SUV, the snap ring on the steering shaft may disengage when the vehicle experiences an impact to the front wheel, such as hitting a pothole. Over time, this may cause the steering shaft to disengage. Toyota was not aware of any accidents resulting from the Lexus steering-shaft problem.

In announcing the latest recall, Steve St. Angelo, Toyota’s chief quality officer for North America, said the automaker was “continuing to work diligently to address safety issues wherever they arise and to strengthen our global quality assurance operations so that Toyota owners can be confident in the safety of their vehicles.”

Another Subpoena For Toyota

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Toyota has been subpoenaed again by a grand jury, this time for documents related to steering relay rods. A probe was launched when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received documents indicating that Toyota had potentially misled the government in 2005 over problems with steering linkages in its 1989-95 4Runner and the 1993-98 T100 vehicles. The subpoena, issued June 29, requests documents related to “defective, broken and/or fractured steering relay rods of Toyota vehicles,” Toyota said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In February, the same federal grand jury subpoenaed Toyota for information related to unintended acceleration in its vehicles as well as braking systems in the Prius hybrid. Toyota has also received subpoenas related to sudden acceleration from the SEC and the attorney general of Michigan. Toyota did not disclose which vehicles or model years were targeted by the latest subpoena.

Toyota’s Electric RAV 4

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The joint venture between Toyota and Tesla Motors, will have us seeing an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 on the roads as early as 2012. Toyota has made a limited number of electric RAV4’s in the past, but have never commercialized the vehicle. The few RAV 4 EV’s that have been running for the past ten years in fleets and in private hands has been considered a terrific workhorse for those driving it. In this new venture, Toyota gets to re-energize their once innovative small crossover vehicle, and Tesla can show that their style of battery and energy management can support large-scale usage.

Tesla is best known for their first and only electric car, the Roadster, which was introduced in 2008, but hopes to expand their market with their Model S sedan which it plans to start selling in 2012. With the e-RAV4 they hope to expand the market even further for electric vehicles by giving ‘soccer moms’ and small business owners a vehicle they can use on a daily basis.

Toyota Recalls Faulty Engines

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Toyota Motor Corp. will be recalling 270,000 Lexus and other vehicles worldwide to fix faulty engines that could make vehicles stall while driving. The problem is with contaminated materials used to make valve springs and crucial engine components. The global recall that starts Monday affects six luxury Lexus sedan models as well as the popular Toyota Crown, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said. Of the 270,000 recalled cars, some 180,000 were sold overseas, including 137,000 in the the United States.

According to the released statement by Toyota, models that could potentially have a faulty valve spring include:

  • Lexus IS 350
  • Lexus GS 350
  • Lexus GS 460
  • Lexus GS 450h
  • Lexus LS 460
  • Lexus LS 600h L
  • Toyota Crown

Current model years are unaffected by the recall. Lexus is moving quickly to resolve the situation and will announce an appropriate remedy as soon as possible.

Hydrogen Cars – Still An Option?

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It seems that lately there has been much talk about the electric car. The automobile companies have been investing large amounts of money into electric cars with the hopes of becoming the leaders in the industry. The installation of more charging stations has not only made it more convenient to charge an electric car, but the installation of solar charging stations has made the drain on the power infrastructure less of a problem.

Still, the hydrogen car lurks in the background. Tucked away on the Torrance campus behind a security guard and a locked gate, a system designed to power Honda’s limited-production FCX Clarity sedan and other hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles uses solar panels to power a machine the size of a mini-refrigerator. This system converts water into hydrogen and oxygen gases and then pumpes the hydrogen directly into the car. No fossil fuels, no pollution, no additional strain on the power grid — and all done at home. It’s called a residential hydrogen refueler, and only one currently exists. According to statements from automakers like Honda, General Motors, Toyota, and Mercedes they hope to begin selling hydrogen-powered production cars to consumers as early as 2015.

Other hydrogen fuel-cell cars, only available by lease, exist. Made by GM, Toyota and Mercedes, most of the lessees are in “station clusters,” specific geographic areas that have hydrogen fueling stations. It’s the scarcity of these hydrogen stations that’s seen as one of the biggest barriers to mass adoption of fuel-cell cars.

The installation of these residential hydrogen refulers would solve this problem, but at what cost? Honda won’t say, but it’s a promising technology that advances the trend toward consumers detaching from a fossil-fuel economy and becoming more self-sufficient. It’s a future in which American homes are less reliant on a large-scale infrastructure — power grids, and water districts — and provide at least some of the solutions themselves via solar panels, gray-water systems, rainwater harvesting and home-based car-refueling technology.

Toyota Restarts Construction On Plant

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Toyota’s Blue Springs, Mississippi plant that was suppose to be completed before 2010 to build the Prius hybrid, will continue construction in order to build Corolla cars. The Corolla, had originally been built in California, but was temporarily shifted to Japan when Toyota closed down their California factory, due to a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors gone ‘sour’.

Toyota has committed more than $10 million to the state to support road construction and extend water and sewer systems, and made donations to support local education, according to the governor’s office. The plant should be finished by fall of next year, providing almost 2,000 jobs for local residences.

The plan signals that Toyota is again getting ready to tackle a growth strategy after managing to return to the black. The previous year had been the automakers worst loss in its history of building automobiles, due to numerous safety recalls.

Yoshimi Inaba, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said the company couldn’t restart the plant until it was sure of a recovery. “With the return of stability to our existing operations in North America, it is time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi,” said Inaba.

Tesla Motors Publicly Offered

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Tesla Motors Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif. based company, is scheduled to make a public offering to trade at the end of the month in hopes of raising as much as $178 million. The electric car maker, best known for its one and only all electric Roadster model, plans to sell 11.1 million shares at about $15 per share.

At the end of last month the company announced a $50 million investment from Toyota Motor Corp., and that they would be moving into the automobile plant recently closed by Toyota.

Tesla said it lost $25.5 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a quarterly loss of $16.0 million a year earlier. For all of 2009, it lost $55.7 million less than the loss in 2008. While electric automobiles are seen as an emerging technology, they are considered an early-stage industry that could take a decade to become more established, making the Tesla offering riskier.

Toyota Stops Sales Of Lexus Luxury Sedans

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Last Wednesday Toyota announced it would be recalling some 2009-2010 Lexus LS 460 and LS 600h luxury sedans in the United States and Japan because of the steering wheels ability to fall out of alignment. On Monday, Toyota announced a stop sales on these vehicles. The sales stoppage and recall cover cars equipped with the company’s variable gear ratio steering system that’s an option on the LS 460 and standard on the LS 600h.

The Lexus sales stoppage is expected to last a while since Toyota does not have a solution to the problem yet but will send out official notice of the recall in the mail next month. Toyota expects it will have a remedy for the problem before the end of June. In the meantime, Toyota is not advising LS owners to park their cars. Lexus believes that the involved vehicles are safe to drive. “In some cases the steering wheel can be 90 degrees out of alignment with the wheels of the car,” Lyons said. “But the problem has only been reported in instances of a very tight and very quick turns.” In all reported cases, he said, the steering wheel realigned itself after about 5 seconds of driving straight.