Report: Toyota recalling 8,000 2010 Tacoma 4WD pickups over driveshaft defect

[NewsFeeder]

Filed under: Truck, Recalls, Toyota

In a dealer communique sent out today, Toyota has announced the voluntary recall of some 8,000 2010 Tacomas that could suffer from a defect in the front propeller shaft.

Pickuptrucks.com reports that a crack can form in the rear joint, causing the driveshaft to come loose from the truck. Obviously, this defect will only affect four-wheel drive models, so standard two-wheel drive Tacomas are left out of the recall.

According to Brian Lyons, Toyota's head of safety communications, "Most of the vehicles [included in the recall] are in the pipeline in Toyota's distribution system or on dealer lots."

Affected owners can contact Toyota at 1-800-331-4331 for more information, and Toyota dealers will perform a ten minute visual inspection of the trucks. Naturally, if they find a fault with the prop shaft assembly, it will be replaced free of charge.

[source: Pickuptrucks.com]

Report: Toyota recalling 8,000 2010 Tacoma 4WD pickups over driveshaft defect originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

View the full article

[Drew Dowdell]

More?!

What else is left to recall?

[Intrepidation]

I think it would be easier for Toyota to list the vehicles it's not recalling/aren't under investigation.

[balthazar]

Will someone, some intrepid 'net hound PLEASE compile a list of all the recalls from toyoyo over the last 10 years ?? 8.5 mill + 4.6 mill + 2.x mill + NUMEROUS others...... they HAVE TO have cleared 15 million recalled in the last decade.... simply amazing. But it needs to be documented... and handy.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

Toyota takes closer look at Tacoma runaway reports

Neil Roland

Automotive News -- February 12, 2010 - 8:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Corp. is re-opening a review of customer complaints about its Tacoma pickup truck following a congressional query about the unusual number of unintended acceleration reports since 2005, a lawyer for the automaker said in a letter released today.

Toyota's 2008 examination of these complaints found that the majority "are related to minor drivability issues and are not indicative of a safety-related defect," the automaker said at the time.

The earlier review was conducted in response to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation, which ended the study after seven months with no action taken.

In explaining the new review, Toyota lawyer Theodore Hester's Feb. 9 letter cited company CEO Akio Toyoda's recent commitment "that our company will review all safety issues and potential safety issues with renewed vigor."

The letter was released by the House Oversight Committee, which plans a Feb. 24 hearing on Toyota's safety issues.

Separately, Toyota said today it will recall about 8,000 model-year 2010 Tacomas in the United States due to a potential defect in front drive shafts that may result in a loss of vehicle control. The part, made by Dana Holding Corp., is also used in Ford and Nissan models, Dana spokesman Chuck Hartlage said.

Earlier Tacoma review

The automaker's earlier review of the Tacoma reported 514 complaints, legal claims and field reports about the 2004-08 Tacoma, Toyota said in an April 2008 letter to NHTSA. Among these, there were 71 accidents, 17 injuries and no deaths, the company said.

NHTSA closed its investigation of 2006-07 models by reporting in August 2008: "The information suggesting a possible defect related to motor vehicle safety is quite limited."

The 2005 and 2006 Tacomas had more unintended acceleration incidents reported than any other Toyota vehicle in any year since 1999, according to a Safety Research & Strategies consulting study earlier this month.

The 2005-10 Tacoma was included in Toyota's fall recall of 4.3 million vehicles for potential floor mat entrapment of the gas pedal.

But the House committee noted in its Feb. 3 letter to the automaker that some Tacoma drivers have reported acceleration problems even when there were no floor mats in the vehicle.

"The truck was accelerating and I was literally standing on the brake and the engine was racing and would not stop," a 2005 Tacoma owner wrote to NHTSA last March, according to the committee. "I through (sic) it into neutral and it sounded like it was going to explode!"

The complainant, who used to race cars, said he did not have any all-weather mats in the truck.

The Tacoma wasn't included in Toyota's January recall of 2.3 million vehicles for sticky gas pedals made by CTS Corp. The Tacoma's pedals weren't provided by the Indiana supplier.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100212/OEM/100219946/1147#ixzz0fNU4T5O6

[Robert Hall]

[CSpec]

8,000 is a nonevent....

[FAPTurbo]

8,000 is a nonevent....

It's a huge event when it's yet ANOTHER recall by a company that two weeks ago every Joe, Jack, Jill, and Thomas Friedman equated with being God's gift to mankind.

Edited February 13, 2010 by FAPTurbo

[Blake Noble]

I wonder if the recall is going to expand to everyone who bought a Toyota on Forza 3 next?

[Camino LS6]

I wonder how many of the rotted Tacomas they ended-up buying back...

[ocnblu]

Shoot, it's the rear joint of the front driveshaft. If it had been the front joint, we could have seen some cool CHiPs polevaulting action out of these Tacos.