http://www.aolnews.com/nation/articl...l-fix/19338580



Report: US Regulators Clear Toyota Gas Pedal FixUpdated: 57 minutes ago
Print Text Size E-mail MoreKen Thomas and Tom Krisher


AP DETROIT (Jan. 30) -- Federal regulators have cleared Toyota's plan to fix millions of sticky gas pedals, and dealers could get parts to make the repairs as early as Thursday or Friday, people briefed on the matter said Saturday.

Two dealers said they were told the news by Toyota executives, and a Department of Transportation official confirmed that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had no objections to Toyota's plans.

Toyota plans to announce details early Monday, according to the dealers, who asked not to be identified because the fix had not been made public. The DOT official also requested anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

Telephone messages left with two Toyota spokesmen Saturday were not immediately returned.

Toyota has recalled 4.2 million vehicles worldwide because the gas pedal systems can get stuck. The company said the problem is rare and is caused by condensation that builds up in the gas pedal assembly.

Several dealers have said the fix involves slipping a shim into an area where springs push the gas pedal back to its resting position after a driver has eased off the gas, but Toyota has not commented on the repair.

Dealers have been in the difficult position of having no parts to fix the cars ever since the recall was announced on Jan. 21.

The recall in the U.S. covers 2.3 million vehicles and involves the 2009-10 RAV4 crossover, the 2009-10 Corolla, the 2009-10 Matrix hatchback, the 2005-10 Avalon, the 2007-10 Camry, the 2010 Highlander crossover, the 2007-10 Tundra pickup and the 2008-10 Sequoia SUV. The recall has been expanded to models in Europe and China.

Toyota said that not all the models listed in the recall have the faulty gas pedals, which were made by CTS Corp. of Elkhart, Ind. Dealers can tell which models have the CTS pedals.

"They've got a fix and it's been approved by NHTSA," said one of the dealers who was happy that parts would be coming soon.

Toyota announced late Friday that it would begin shipping new gas pedal systems to dealers as well.

Legally Toyota did not need NHTSA's approval for the fix, but the company submitted the plan to the government agency on Thursday, and it would be unlikely to proceed without the government's blessing.

 

Glad to see a fix has been approved.

Hopefully, Toyota will now get back to their roots of quality over quantity. Ever since they went for the "world's biggest automaker" crown, they've encountered nothing but troubles.

 

great resolution. all this week, some of my colleagues have been bashing toyota for being "hypocritical" in their print and media ads. ive always been a proponent of great customer care, as this is the core to a business becoming well known and of elite status. that being said, toyota did the right thing by suspending sales (albeit probably not for much longer). with the assembly parts soon to be in hand, the reliability issue for toyota IMHO is not a situation but rather a momentary issue of the past.

 

Great news!! Now get back to basics and quit trying to win the volume contest. Who cares if the UAW guys can build more crappy cars each year than Toyota ! Quality is job #1, even Ford said that !

 

Hmm, I wonder if my repair took place today. I was there from 8am-1pm waiting. This was my 5,000 mile service too...

 

This is certainly good news, I look forward to the official announcement on Monday!

 

Yeah so now that Toyota has a fix, the naysayers and ambulance chasers disappeared. Toyota is not going to let down the customers...and this is proof they are serious about this situation.

 

Yep, just get it done. Glad to see the focus on solutions and not excuses.

 

It appears the solution is nothing more than a shim that increases the tension in the return spring. This problem is/was not that big a deal in the scheme of things. It was and is continuing to be blown way out of proportion by a media that is ignorant of the facts, and has an agenda of their own. There are those who still claim there are problems in the fly-by-wire electronic systems and the mat and pedal issues mask a bigger problem. I don't think there is any proof of that claim, but we'll see down the road if these issues still continue.

 

Any issue that that shuts down the sale of 8 models across a car line is major news....

 

indeed... first time govt decided to do that. I really cant see how all the hysteria caused by that helped anyone but other car manufacturers. Lets hope this happens to other manufacturers as well, as fixing issues on the fly and doing recalls much later is the way industry works and always has. Example is every recall NHTSA did so far, for instance Honda one - issue was known and fixed on production lines 2 years ago. Or current investingation on F150 airbag deployments that was fixed by Ford in 2006. There are million examples like this.

 

The Govt will always do that until there's a fix for the affected models....And at the time of seizure there wasn't a "100% certain fix"..Which now, since then has been solved. iirc?

 

when did that happen? How can be the fix ready when the issue was just made known?
For 95% of NTHSA recalls that were done so far, they were done long after it was fixed by supplier on production lines.

My question would be this, if this was common way of doing this - why didnt they shut down Honda production in 2008 before issue was fixed?
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...indow-glitch/1
(i am not criticizing Honda it was just latest non-toyota recall).

There is always time space between issue being found and issue being fixed. Always. What is so different this time around?

 

p.s. I think this is what should happen in perfect world... when issue is found that can threaten lives, production and sales should stop right away until fix is applied to all produced vehicles. I said perfect world, since this has never happened until now.

You can check NHTSA recall list for December 2009 alone... plenty of manufacturers there (Volvo, GM, Audi, Hyundai, Jaguar, Subaru, BMW):
http://nhthqnwws112.odi.nhtsa.dot.go...22009-1234.pdf

I didnt see them stopping sales before fix was made...Quite obviously some time frame between issue finding and issue fixing at a. production lines b. cars waiting to be sold, c. cars already sold is always there.

edit:
p.s. where were then these safety laws under which Toyota "had" to stop sales, in this case of these and almost all other recalls that NHTSA has done in its history? Quite obviously choice is always with the manufacturer.

 

Throughout this whole situation, one thing that has really caught my attention: why is the government so focused on Toyota?

The government forced the stop-sale of Toyota models, and the government has upcoming Senate hearings on the matter.

I seriously think this is an anti-Toyota backlash coming from the current government administration.

Why hasn't the government forced other automakers to fix serious issues that threaten the safety and lives on consumers? Some automakers have major issues with malfunctioning airbags, which pose a serious risk. Many Honda models have serious brake fade issues as well as transmission problems, which could lead to accidents.

There is a huge list of potentially serious issues on Chrysler vehicles.

It seems obvious why the government is not forcing anything for GM or Chrysler, since they both have government assistance.

I will say this; the American government needs to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds. If they sour their relationship with Toyota, then Toyota will potentially stop building plants in the US, and the US could lose out on billions of dollars of investment from Toyota. If the relationship were to sour, Toyota could potentially build more plants in Canada instead.