Featured Toyota bZ4X Specifications Revealed

Bizarre.

These bolts are torqued by machine. This means there was some issue with calibration or software or something similar.

 

According to the Creative311 site there was some difference between specs for the "disc wheel" (hub) and the hub bolts. They ended up replacing the "disc wheel" (hub) and all of the hub bolts. So it was not only replacing some 54,000 hub bolts but 10,800 hubs. Then they found an additional issue that they included with fixing the wheel bolt issue. Apparently it had something to do with the passenger front a-pillar curtain shield airbag deployment strap not being installed at the proper position. If the airbags did go off it may deploy incorrectly and result in possible injury to the passenger. This was found in like 112 bZ4Xs and 92 Solterras.

https://creative311.com/?p=147500&page=2

 

Toyota USA is non-union. Toyota Japan is union shop.

Sounds like the Crown is using wheel bolts too. So expect to see them being used on everything going forward.

 

You are right and this is a fascinating topic

Toyota has ongoing training for its employees which if you are connected to Engineering usually meant constant travel to Japan over your Career. I probable spent over 12 weeks working in three different Toyota Plants - Motomachi, Tsutsumi and Takaoka.

As mentioned, all Japan Toyota Plants are unionized. When working in the Plants we often attended union activities. In Japan most Unions and all Toyota Unions are Social Groups which plan group activities and cooperate with management to improve the work environment, and Kaizen process to make the company better, more profitable and of course nicer to work for.

I think that is important to mention as the typical American Union would be unceremoniously immediately butt kicked out of the Plant onto the street in front of the Plant.

 

The reason's why for that, and why the labor-management dynamic is different in the US is. Unfortunately, it is probably one that will end up in the politics section.

 

Speaking of Kaizen, I found a fascinating article on the constant improvement of the TNGA including how they built the GR Yaris using 2 different TNGA platforms. As some of us have suspected, TNGA itself is not written in stone and is meant to be improved. They compare it to the Volkswagen MQB architecture.

Platform sharing: The many faces of TNGA | CarExpert