Toyota readies dealer fix for faulty accelerator pedals
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From: C. E. White on 29 Jan 2010 00:15 Toyota readies dealer fix for faulty accelerator pedals Hans Greimel Automotive News -- January 28, 2010 - 11:10 pm ET TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. is fine-tuning a dealer remedy for faulty accelerator pedals in 2.3 million recalled vehicles and aims to announce the fix as early as next week, a person familiar with the matter said. The procedure involves inserting a metal shim into a gap in the friction lever of the pedal. Doing so will reduce friction and prevent the pedal from sticking, the person said. "As early as next week, we will have some guidance for dealers," the source said. "We are still trying to solve a few technical issues." Among the last-minute tweaks are testing for durability and ensuring that the remedy is something that dealers can easily employ. "We have to make sure that dealers can do this according to the instructions without making mistakes," the source said. Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said the automaker hasn't yet decided on a final dealer remedy and is still unclear on a timeline for rolling it out. The actions come as Toyota grapples with a Jan. 21 recall in which the world's largest carmaker called back the 2.3 million U.S. vehicles to address gas pedals that can return too slowly to their original position or even, with age, get stuck and cause unintended acceleration. Toyota is taking a two-pronged approach. It has to develop a remedy for the cars already on the road that the dealers can implement. It also has to develop a new part that can go into cars on the assembly line. The solution is likely to be different for each set of vehicles. One of two supplier's of the pedal mechanism, CTS Corp. of Elkhart, Ind., today said it is shipping replacement parts to Toyota's assembly plants in North America. Toyota and CTS changed the material used in that mechanism and also some of the measurements to ensure that it won't stick, the source said. CTS also said it was working with Toyota on a dealer remedy, without providing details. In addition, Toyota is looking at having the other supplier of the pedals, Japan's Denso Corp., provide replacement pedal mechanisms for vehicles being manufactured and for cars that are waiting in factory lots to have their defective pedals replaced, the source said. But the issue of interchangeability remains an obstacle, partly because Denso and CTS use different wire harnesses.
From: Tegger on 29 Jan 2010 10:11
"C. E. White" <cewhite3remove(a)mindspring.com> wrote in news:_7WdnT2hpZ5u8__WnZ2dnUVZ_sudnZ2d(a)earthlink.com: You should include the URL for the pages you quote here. > Toyota readies dealer fix for faulty accelerator pedals > Hans Greimel > Automotive News -- January 28, 2010 - 11:10 pm ET > <snip> > > Toyota and CTS changed the material used in that mechanism and also > some of the measurements to ensure that it won't stick, the source > said. CTS has known about this problem for some time and had already instituted a fix to all new-manufactured pedal assemblies. When dealers inspect their unsold cars, they are looking for a white mark on the left side of the pedal shank. No mark, no sale. The white mark indicates the new-design CTS assembly that is not prone to sticking. Cars with those are OK and may be offered for sale. The recall is being done because of how parts are delivered to assembly plants: it is not obvious which cars were built with older pre-fix pedals and which do not. So in order to be certain, Toyota is simply having them ALL inspected. -- Tegger |