Toyota is recalling 280,000 of its pickup truck and SUV models over a safety issue where the transmission may not disengage entirely when in neutral, causing the vehicles to “creep forward.”
“Certain parts of the transmission may not immediately disengage when the vehicle is shifted to the neutral position,” the Japanese automaker said in a notice on Wednesday.
“This can allow some engine power to continue to be transferred to the wheels and can allow the vehicle to inadvertently creep forward at a low speed when it is on a flat surface and no brakes are applied, leading to an increased risk of a crash.”
The recall affects Toyota Tundra, Tundra Hybrid, Sequoia and the company’s luxury Lexus LX 600 vehicles in the US with 2022 to 2024 model years.
Owners will be notified by late April if their vehicle is part of the recall, Toyota said.
In the meantime, the company has a website where consumers can enter their license plate number and see if their vehicle is affected.
“For all involved vehicles, Toyota and Lexus dealers will update the software for the transmission at no cost to customers,” the company said in its notice.
This recall was one of three Toyota announced in this week.
In addition, some 19,000 Mirai and Lexus LS, LC and ES vehicles with 2023 and 2024 model years distributed in North America, Japan and Asia were recalled over “a software programming issue.”
“The rearview image may not display within the period of time required by certain US safety regulations after the driver shifts the vehicle into reverse, increasing the risk of a crash while backing the vehicle,” Toyota said in a subsequent recall notice.
Separately, some 4,000 Toyota Camry and Camry Hybrid vehicles are also being recalled over safety issues with the head restraints on rear fold-down seats that “increase the risk of injury during certain collisions.”
The latest recalls follow a warning late last year that a staggering 1.2 million Toyota vehicles’ airbags weren’t deploying as designed.
One million of the affected models — including 2020 through 2022 model years of Avalon, Camry, Corolla, RAV4, Lexus ES250, ES300H, ES350, RX350 Highlander and Sienna Hybrids — are in the US alone, the automaker said.
The Japan-based auto manufacturer said the Occupant Classification System (OCS) sensors in the front passenger seat of vehicles in question “could have been improperly manufactured, causing a short circuit.”
“This would not allow the airbag system to properly classify the occupant’s weight, and the airbag may not deploy as designed in certain crashes, increasing the risk of injury,” Toyota added.
Representatives for Toyota Motor declined to comment about how it learned of the defective airbags.
Frontal airbags have saved more than 50,000 lives in the United States over 30 years, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The new sensors were prompted because older air bags deployed the same way for all driver and passengers, causing some injuries and in rare cases even death to children, small adults and unbelted passengers who were too close to the air bag as it deployed, the agency said.
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