Toyota South Africa announces details of recall

The affected passenger vehicle models are:

Toyota Corolla (February 2007 to January 2010) - 45 040 vehicles
Toyota Auris (June 2006 to January 2010) - 6665 vehicles
Toyota Verso (October 2008 to January 2010) - 841 vehicles

The recall is being done as a “pro-active precaution” and is based on the fact that the mechanism is similar in operation to those which have proven faulty in other regions.

In these regions the mechanisms, in severe circumstances, have deteriorated and become harder to depress, slow to return to idle or have, in just a handful of cases, become stuck in a partially depressed position.

In more detail the problem relates to the operation between the mechanism's friction shoe that provides pedal feel and ensures pedal stability, and the adjoining surface.

Corrective action

The corrective action will take the form of a small precision-cut steel plate that will be placed in the assembly to alleviate the friction between the friction shoe and adjoining surface. This will prevent the problem from surfacing in vehicles equipped with this steel bar for the life of the vehicle.

Toyota will start contacting customers of the affected vehicles immediately. All Toyota dealers in South Africa and the countries that TSAM serve will be involved. These include Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.

The action will take place despite the fact that the problem has not surfaced to the same effect in the hot and dry climate of South Africa.

TSAM has, since the first announcement of its participation, received a small number of requests from concerned owners and will study each individual instance to understand whether the problem has indeed surfaced locally.

An apology

“We would like to apologise to all Toyota vehicle owners for the uncertainty and inconvenience that this process may have caused. We value the trust and confidence that Toyota owners have put in our brand over the past five decades and we will do everything in our power to honour that,” says Dr Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of TSAM.

Toyota South Africa Motors and its nationwide dealer network will immediately start contacting owners of the identified vehicles to inform them of the recall service action. Owners will be given the opportunity to contact their nearest Toyota dealer at their convenience and schedule a time for the insertion of the steel bar. Repairs will start from 23 February 2010.

The corrective action should take less than an hour, but could take longer if the dealer is experiencing very high levels of service calls.

Toyota will bear full costs

Toyota announced today that the full cost of the corrective process will be borne by Toyota and that no owner will be required to pay, regardless of the state of his or her service plan, warranty or the ownership status of the vehicle.

As further support to the campaign concerned customers can visit www.toyota.co.za or phone the Customer Contact Centre on 0800-139-111 for up-to-date information on the recall service campaign.

“We would like to apologise in advance to our customers for the inconvenience this campaign might cause them. We believe the action of fitting the accelerator pedal component with a safeguard mechanism is in line with our commitment to customer safety and satisfaction and we trust that our customers will continue to experience the trouble free motoring they have come to expect from Toyota,” says Dr Van Zyl.

Current production upgraded

With relation to locally produced Corolla models Toyota has already implemented the corrective action in all vehicles in current production.

This means that no newly sold Corolla from this date onwards would require the corrective action. This also applies to the Auris and Verso models that TSAM imports from Europe, where the vehicles currently in production have received the necessary upgrades.

In an unrelated service action TSAM has decided to recall all new generation Prius models (August 2009 to February 2010) for a software upgrade to the electronic brake system. This action involves 216 vehicles.

This upgrade will address the delayed brake feel on slippery surfaces that has been experienced elsewhere in the world.

Given the small volume of new generation vehicles affected Toyota is already in the process of contacting each Prius owner to inform them of this upgrade and schedule a convenient appointment time at their closest Prius dealer.