Toyota Finds Ghost In Machine. It Stops The Car
Toyota is a customer centric company. It now considers a recall that will please the vociferous crowd that thinks something is wrong with Toyota’s engine computer. Reuters reports that Toyota is discussing with NHTSA whether and how they should fix nearly 1.2 million Corolla and Matrix models. They are at risk of unintended stoppage. They might stall out because of flaws in their computer.
Toyota says it believes that the engine control unit could malfunction because of a crack in soldered joints in the unit, or because of an electrical short. Both conditions could cause the engine to shut down without warning, or fail to start.
Reuters says Toyota wrote a letter to NHTSA, requesting a meeting to discuss the problem.
After receiving 26 complaints of engines stalling in Toyota Corolla and Matrix models because of failures in the engine control modules, NHTSA had opened a preliminary evaluation of Corolla stalling complaints in November 2009.
Toyota might reach their elusive goal of 10m cars a year. Recalled cars.
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This issue has been under scrutiny since early 2007 by Toyota and NHTSA. Delphi is the only supplier, but two separate issues exist with two different Delphi suppliers. Some of the reason for the numbers appearing low is that a majority of the ECU's have already been replaced due to this issue. If you have access to the warranty data you could see that Toyota was swapping out a couple of thousand a week on average. The recall is essentailly a clean-up. One question comes to mind....this same ECU is in the Pontiac Vibe. The failures occur at the same rate and for the same reason. Where is the GM recall?
I'll have to bring in the parental units Matrix for this one. I wonder if Toyota service will try to sell me more premature routine maintenance this time. maybe since I'm at 18,000 miles they'll offer to replace the carburetor or since it's almost spring they'll offer to change the winter air in my tires for summer air.
Get serious, Toyota. NHTSA knows the problem is cosmic rays... Now that we're finally getting a "daily defect report" from Toyota, I wish mainstream media would spotlight all those 1zz engine failures (MR2 Spyders and Celicas). Probably should have been included in the oil sludge recall. And that's another untold story. Over 3,100 customers have signed a petition protesting Toyota's response. Clean up your act, Toyota. http://uc2.blogspot.com
Still waiting for the Toyota Recall watch series!