Toyota News and Notes

The curtain shield airbags in your car have two chambers that are welded together.

That weld keeps those chambers hugging and happy. The only problem is, someone did a really bad job welding 1.4 million Toyota vehicles worldwide. The bad welds are cracking and letting those chambers loosen their embrace in the Prius, Prius Plug-in, and Lexus CT 200h. If they pull too far apart and you get in an accident:…

A minor label issue is about to become a major pain in the butt for 2,500 Toyota and Scion owners.

Why do automakers bother with recalls about stickers? Because of federal law. Based on federal regulations, a load carrying modification label must be added to a vehicle if weight exceeding the lesser of 1.5 percent of 100 pounds is added to a vehicle between final vehicle certification and the first retail sale of the vehicle. Any corrected values must be accurate to within 1 percent of the actual added weight.…

How hot do you like your seat heater in the winter?

If you like it really toasty — as in, with an actual flame — you’ll probably love one of 7,700 Toyota vehicles with seat heaters that catch on fire. The vehicles have been recalled because fire and cars don’t get along, what with their tanks of highly flammable liquids and all. All the affected vehicles are equipped with aftermarket accessory seat heaters that contain copper strand heating elements. The recall is being handled by Southeast Toyota Distributors (SET) which is the world’s largest distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles.

The recall is expected to begin on July 14, 2016 and the seat heaters will need to be disconnected. Owners will be reimbursed.

It's not a matter of if, but when your strut will take a big hit. And when that happens in the 2015 Yaris, it won't be able to handle it according to Toyota.

An internal investigation found the upper ring of the strut mounting bearing was damaged which allowed the strut to move, causing noise and wear of the strut rod. No problem could be found at the plant with assembly procedures or machines, so Toyota took a look at the history of the design.

The investigation found a steel cap strut bearing had been changed to a resin material in January 2015. And let's just say, the resin ain't cutting it. The recalled cars were manufactured between January 13, 2015 and February 27, 2015.

Toyota is recalling 1.5 million vehicles with dangerous Takata airbag inflators, including some from its Scion and Lexus divisions.

The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an additional 35-40 million Takata airbags would need to be recalled across multiple brands across the USA. See the full list of recalled vehicles.…

When you hear your vehicle has been recalled, a little bit of panic is expected --- is it one of those Takata airbags?

A defective transmission? Does it have something to do with that strange smell I can't get rid of? Well, luckily for you this time it's all about some stickers (so you're still going to have to figure out the smell on your own): Gulf States Toyota says the "load carrying capacity modification" label may be incorrect concerning the "correct added weight of the installed accessories." That little issue is a violation of federal vehicle safety standards.

Gulf States Toyota is the 2nd largest distributor of Toyota vehicles in the world. To find out if your vehicle came from Gulf States, give 'em a ring at 800-444-1074 (use recall number 16R2).

The occupant classification system (OCS) in some 2016 Toyotas isn't doing a very good job classifying occupants.

(Toyota) says 41,630 model year 2016 Camry sedans and 16,880 model year 2016 Avalon cars have front passenger airbags, including knee airbags, that can fail to deploy.

So far there aren't many details about this recall, but Toyota will need to recalibrate the OCS soon. Watch your mailbox for an official notice.