Toyota Recall Update

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January 29, 2010

The people at Edmunds Inside Line have come up with a handy and useful way to tell for certain if your Toyota vehicle is included in the recall announced this week for sticking gas pedals. Toyota purchases throttle assemblies from two suppliers, Denso and CTS. Only the units built by CTS are subject to the recall. The unit is located below the dashboard on the right side of the driver's space and has the gas pedal attached to it. In the photo above, the Denso unit, which is not part of the recall, can be identified by the four mounting bolts, shown by the four yellow arrows, and the by the word "Denso" stamped on the outside of the housing in the area where the yellow oval is. Below is a short video showing how to locate and identify which unit is in your Toyota. 

Cars built in Japan have a "J" as the first character in their VIN numbers and are not included in the recall. Here is the list of US built cars included in the recall:

Some of the effected models were built both in the US and in Japan. Only the US built vehicles are included in the recall. They will have a number rather than the letter "J" as the first character in the VIN:

And then, of course, there's a twist. Not all Camrys with "4T1" as the first three digits in the VIN have the CTS part. Some have the Denso unit. Use the video avove to determine which throttle assembly is in your Camry or contact your dealer.

On Thursday, GM said it is recalling all 2009 and 2010 models of the Pontiac Vibe, a total of 71,000 cars. The Vibe was built at the joint GM/Toyota factory in California. Concern about the troublesome throttles has spread to millions of Toyota vehicles sold in Europe and in China. Toyota is working furiously to re-design the CTS throttle mechanism, but it will take as much as a year to manufacture enough of them to replace all the CTS sourced units.

Toyota says the problem does not occur suddenly. Instead, the throttle unit slowly wears over time, making it harder to press down and slower to return once pressure on the gas pedal is removed. If you are concerned about your particular car, try this experiment. With the engine off, press down on the gas. Do you feel any resistance? Do you hear any grinding noises? If the answer to both is no, that's good.  Now, quickly release the pedal. Does it spring back immediately? If it does, that's good, too. Toyota will replace the part anyway, once it is able to. But in the meantime, you should be able to drive your car normally. Just be aware of any changes in gas pedal operation. If you notice it becoming harder to push or not releasing immediately when you take your foot off the gas, contact your local Toyota dealer.

Meanwhile, Ford and GM both are offering a bonus of up to $1,000 to customers who trade in a Toyota covered by the recall. Welcome to the jungle.