Recalls

Just two years after Toyota paid fines totaling US $48.8 million, including a then-record single fine of $16.4 million, the automaker has been hit with a new $17.4 million fine in the US over a delayed pedal entrapment recall on 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h models.The NHTSA contacted Toyota in May, after receiving several reports of pedal entrapment from owners of 2010 Lexus RX models. In June, Toyota responded to the NHTSA, admitting that 63 such incidents, some dating back to 2009, had been reported on the Lexus crossover.Toyota then followed up with the recall of some 150,000 RX models, including both gas and hybrid variants, but the NHTSA saw the response as coming too late after the initial reports. In turn, it’s fined Toyota $17.4 million over the incident, the highest amount ever charged to an automaker.As part of the settlement, Toyota avoids admitting it was at fault in the incident, but agrees to further restructuring of its quality assurance group. It will also undertake a review of all safety-related issues as a result of this latest fine.www.motorauthority.com 

German giant Mercedes-Benz is recalling 2159 passenger cars produced between March 2012 and August 2012 fitted with a particular type of accessory floor mat.The company issued the recall over concerns the accelerator pedal may come into contact with the floor mat. "(The contact) could interfere with the pedal operation and affect the ability of the driver to slow the vehicle," the recall notice said."If the accelerator pedal comes into contact with the floor mat (which is one of the optional accessory mat ordered by customers), this may result in unexpected high vehicle speeds and it may be difficult to slow or stop the vehicle," the notice said.Mercedes-Benz spokesman Jerry Stamoulis said some of the affected vehicles were still on ships from the factory and had yet to be delivered to customers. "We haven't had any issues with these mats in Australia but we are replacing them as a precaution, we are writing to customers of the vehicles that have already been sold that may have had these mats fitted or have been purchased at authorised dealerships," he said.British prestige car maker Jaguar is recalling 63 of its five-litre V8 petrol XF sedans sold between 2010 and 2012 with a Vehicle Identification Number range from R47155 to R73382 over concerns of a fuel leak and fire. The recall involves problems with the fuel tank fuel outlet mounting flange that may develop crack, which could trigger a warning light on the dashboard."If this occurs, the driver will most likely see an amber malfunction indicator lamp on the instrument cluster. "The driver may smell fuel and in some instances with the vehicle stationary, there could be liquid fuel underneath the vehicle, which in the presence of an ignition source could lead to a fire," the recall said.Jaguar Australia is writing to customers who bought vehicles affected by the recall to have the fuel outlet mounting flange replaced. German sportscar marque Porsche has issued a recall on its 2010 model 911 GT3 with the central wheel lock feature, manufactured between February 19, 2009, and April 6th, 2010.The recall notice says that under rare circumstances, the wheel hubs and wheel bearings on the rear axle may break. "If the rear wheel hubs and bearings break, the driver may lose control of the vehicle and create a hazard to the driver and other road users," the notice said.Porsche Cars Australia is writing to effected owners and they are being asked to contact their nearest Porsche dealer to arrange for the wheel hubs and wheel bearings on the rear axle to be replaced. 

Around 110,000 child seat tether kits in Australia have been recalled for a defect that could see the anchor point break in a crash and risk injury to the child.The fitting was sold under the brand names Tomy, Chico, IGC and Hemco in a range of national chain stores – including Big W, Toys’R’Us, Target, David Jones, Supercheap, Autobarn, Dimmeys and independent retailers around the country.The kit is used to anchor the child seat largely to older vehicles which don’t yet have the factory-installed anchor points that are in most – but not all – current models. In a crash the defective kits may fail and the child seat become loose. Faulty units have been on the market since April, and are marked with the batch numbers 022 or 023 stamped on the bracket.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it’s possible the bracket has been fitted to both new and used brands of child seats not already cited in the recalls. The ACCC is urging the public to check any child seat, capsule or bracket, either new or secondhand – or any secondhand vehicle with an anchor kit already installed – bought since April.Replacement brackets and kits will be supplied by the vendors, who can be contacted on the numbers below. If people find they have one of the defective brackets but don’t know where it was purchased, they will be replaced by Hemco Industries, the original supplier of the parts which were manufactured under their license.It’s not yet known why the two batches of brackets were defective, Hemco’s general manager Graeme Holt said. “At this stage we don’t know the exact cause, but both looking into it,” Mr Holt said. “They are made by our subcontractor National Industries, in Melbourne. We own the tool and they own the press. They have been making them for us since 2001 without any problem.“We have ongoing inwards goods testing and they passed all that so we thought there was nothing wrong with them. “But in the child restraint standard there’s a test where they pull it at a different angle – 90 degrees to the mounting point – and that revealed a fault in testing by IGC, so we have recalled all the kits.”Mr Holt said around 100,000 or the kits were supplied to the named manufacturers, while up to another 10,000 went to market under the Hemco brand.Hemco Industries 1800 065 057 service@hemco.com.auIGC Dorel 1300 809 526 sales@igcdorel.com.auChicco 02 8543 5570 info@chicco.com.auTomy 1800 492 236 serviceaus@tomy.com

In another humiliating setback for the world's biggest carmaker, Toyota has recalled 2.77 million cars due to a fault that could result in the loss of steering. The recall applies to 12,710 Prius hybrids imported to Australia between 2003 and 2009, and a range of other models around the world -- including the popular Corolla. Toyota said in a statement the steering intermediate extension shaft may not have been adequately hardened, allowing the splines that connect the extension shaft to the steering box to deform and wear out if the steering wheel is "frequently and forcefully turned into full lock while driving at a slow speed".Toyota Australia spokesman Mike Breen said in the "worst case scenario a motorist continuing to drive under the conditions may cause the shaft to wear out, resulting in loss of control". He said there have been three reported cases in Australia so far, none of which has resulted in incidents.The Prius is affected by an additional recall for a defective water pump. It is news Toyota does not need as it tries to retain its global primacy ahead of General Motors. Only last month Toyota was forced to recall more than 7.4 million vehicles worldwide to fix faulty power window switches. The auto giant had barely recovered from the record 10 million vehicle pull back in 2009. 

Mazda’s slogan might be “zoom zoom” but it took seven days longer than Ford to announce an identical recall for a jammed throttle -- for a car made on the same production line.Mazda is recalling 26,000 Tribute SUVs made between December 2000 and February 2007 because, according to the Federal Government’s recall website, “the engine be stuck at full power when the accelerator pedal is fully or almost-fully depressed.“A throttle that is stuck fully or almost fully open may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop or slow the vehicle. This risk exists regardless of whether or not cruise control is being used.” Only models powered by the 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine are affected. There may be inadequate clearance between the engine cover and the cruise control cable, the safety bulletin says.Mazda spokesman Steve Maciver told News Limited: “The reason we took longer was to make sure we had the repair procedures in place … and ensure we had enough parts to supply. “We have sold more than triple the number of cars than Ford in that period.”Ford Australia last week announced a recall of 8798 Escape SUVs built between November 2001 and February 2006. Ford and Mazda, longtime joint venture partners, built the same cars on the same production line in Japan, although the last 2000 Mazda Tributes caught up in the recall in Australia came from a factory in Taiwan. Both Mazda and Ford say there are no reports of cruise control or accelerators jamming on in Australia.In North America, where the recall originated, Ford is recalling 484,000 Escape models while Mazda is recalling 217,000 Tribute SUVs. Both companies say the free repair work takes less than one hour but customers may need to leave their cars for longer to cope with the log-jam.Meanwhile Jeep is recalling more than 900,000 Cherokee 4WDs, including up to 11,000 in Australia sold between 2002 and 2004, because the airbag could go off unintentionally. Safety authorities report there have been more than 200 instances of Jeep airbags going off without warning.The latest recalls pale compared to Toyota’s famous 2010 recall of 9 million cars in North America – the biggest in the automotive industry – because of concerns of stuck accelerator pedals and/or jammed floormats. In May that year, Ford Australia recalled 5000 sets of floormats for its Territory SUV for a similar issue.'

...that could jam the engine onto full power.The notice has been given for 3.0-litre V6 Tributes sold here between December 2000 and February 2007 with factory fitted cruise control. The Tribute, which was discontinued in Australia in 2008 and replaced by the Mazda CX-7, is a rebadged version of the Ford Escape that was recalled over a week ago in numbers close to 9000 here and 485,000 in the US with the same defect. The vehicles may have inadequate clearance between the engine cover and cruise control cable, allowing the throttle to become stuck, regardless of whether or not the cruise control is being used.There have been no incidents reported yet of the problem causing throttles to jam in Australian Tributes, Mazda spokesman Steven Maciver says. “The alert was raised in the United States, and we don’t have exactly the same set-up for the Tribute here, but it’s similar so we made the decision to recall. “The fix is fairly straightforward and takes about an hour. We’ll be contacting owners shortly – we’re just waiting for confirmation of parts supply,” he says.Tribute owners are advised to avoid near or full-throttle pedal pressure to reduce the risk of the dangerous problem occurring. If you experience a stuck throttle, you should firmly and steadily apply the brakes without pumping the brake pedal, shift to neutral, steer the vehicle to a safe location and switch the engine off after the vehicle has completely stopped. 

The recall issued by Jeep parent company Chrysler is due to a defect in the airbag control modules that could cause the front or side curtain airbags to deploy inadvertently.The vehicles carrying the defective module are the Jeep Liberty (sold here as the Cherokee) and Grand Cherokee SUVs built from 2002 to 2004. The 919,545 Jeeps recalled include 744,822 in the United States; 49,430 in Canada; 21,828 in Mexico, and 103,465 around the rest of the world.More than 11,000 of those two models were sold in Australia during the period covered by the recall, but Chrysler Australia has not yet confirmed the exact number affected here.The recall was sparked by the results of an investigation started late last year after reports of airbags deploying inadvertently in the US, with the 215 cases probed including 81 that resulted in injuries."A design change to a supplied component was linked to a small number of inadvertent air bag deployments, and in keeping with the best interests of our customers, we initiated a recall campaign," David Dillon, Chrysler's global head of product investigations and campaigns, said in a statement. The defect will be fixed with the installation of a supplementary jumper harness to the airbag control module, Chrysler said. 

A few weeks ago while gently rolling downhill into a parking spot with my foot on the brake in my 2011 V6 Toyota RAV4 the engine suddenly roared to full revs. Good reactions allowed me to ram the gear lever into Park and with both feet pressing like mad on the brake I turned the motor off. On restarting the car everything seemed normal and a subsequent trip to the local country Toyota dealer confirmed that all was ok. They thought the problem was with a floor mat riding up on the accelerator pedal, except that I have not got one in the car and the accelerator pedal is top hinged. On return to Melbourne I consulted my local dealer who, although very concerned, could find nothing wrong. Have any other Toyota drivers have had similar occurrences with these "fly-by-wire throttles" suddenly going to flat-out? I am now loathe to let my wife drive the car and am very apprehensive in traffic. I am firmly convinced that any mechanical or electrical problem only becomes a recallable problem after enough people have complained and then, and only then, will carmakers act.

The two utes are twins under the skin – and in parts of the cabin, including the faulty rear seatback latch that saw a mid-October recall on 4258 Ford PX Rangers and has now been cited on the dual-cab BT-50.“There are about 3500 Mazda BT-50s across Australia that are affected by the recall,” Mazda Australia spokesman Tony Mee says.The defect is on BT-50s sold between late May 2011 and mid-February 2012, with the VIN numbers from MM0UP0YF100100501 to MM0UP0YF100108651. The recall notice says the rear seatback latch fitted to affected vehicles may not engage correctly, resulting in the rear seatback latch not being secured to the body striker and causing the rear seatback to fall forward.The defect poses a safety hazard to passengers, and owners are warned not to use a rearward-facing child seat in the vehicle until the defect is fixed. However Mee says there have been no reports of incidents or injuries related to the defect.“Not one report,” he says, adding that the fix is a relatively swift one. “Owners have been contacted by mail asking them to speak to their local dealer to arrange a convenient time to repair the car. The repair itself takes less than an hour,” Mee says.The dealer will replace the link between the rear seatback release strap and the rear seatback locking mechanism with a revised component.The Ford recall was the second on the Ranger within months, with an August notice issued on 16,287 Rangers built in Thailand from September 2006 to June 2011 for a defect that risked fracturing of the towbar welding.

The Australian car maker has issued the safety recall for 8798 of its imported Escape - models with the 3-litre V6 with cruise control only - built between November 1st 2001 and February 1st 2006, over a problem with the cruise control cable and the engine cover.Ford Australia spokesman Martin Gunsberg said the recall relates to 18,480 vehicles across that Asia Pacific and Africa region. "A similar recall was issued relating to left-hand drive versions of this vehicle with the same issue earlier this year," he said.The recall notice said the possibility of "inadequate clearance between the engine cover and the cruise control cable" which could allow "the engine to be stuck at full power when the accelerator pedal is fully or almost-fully depressed.The company's recall notice also said a throttle that is stuck fully or almost fully open may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop or slow the vehicle. The problem may occur "regardless of whether the cruise control is being used or not."Owners are being advised by the carmaker, who is writing to those owners affected, to contact a Ford dealership for inspection and rectification. The notice also warns driver to avoid near or full-throttle pedal pressure in a bid to reduce the chances of the dangerous problem occurring."If a driver experiences a stuck throttle, the driver should firmly and steadily apply the brakes without pumping the brake pedal, shift to neutral, steer the vehicle to a safe location and switch the engine off after the vehicle has completely stopped," the recall notice said.Ford in the US is recalling nearly 485,000 Escape V6 SUVs to fix sticking accelerator pedals after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received 68 complaints relating to 13 crashes, nine injuries and one death, however Ford Australia has received no reports of the issue occurring here.For further information, contact Ford's customer relationship centre on 1800 503 672.