Prius Recall due to floor mats? 2 yrs ago Prius owners said there's more to it than that...

The mats were all already in place when I took delivery, and I did check everywhere for clips/hooks. The only thing I found in the glove compartment was an elastic band for something or other--no clips. I spoke to the dealer and he sounded shocked that they weren't clipped in, so I will be picking them up from him soon.

 

I haven't received any recall notice as yet. I didn't get the OEM floor mats with the car. Anyone else get a notice without buying the Toyota mats?

 

Interesting, when I took delivery of my car there were no plastic clips installed either, and they were no where in the car. I knew I should have them because my '05 Prius and the Corolla loaner car I used had them. I ask the salesman and he went over to another new car took a set out of it and gave them to me.

 

My car came with the the carpet floor mats installed with clips (July), and as part of the deal, they threw in free all-weather mats. I just switched out the carpet mat for the rubber one, and it seems pretty secure to me.

 

I have OEM mats, carpet with the car (on the original window sticker) and rubber from PC shop. Car and winter mat set were purchased in late July and no recall notice on either mat set. I am registered at the Toyota owners website, in case that makes a difference. Clips were included with both and the carpet ones were properly installed by the dealer.

 

My 2007 OEM mats came with no clips anywhere, but the holes are there. I think the problem is with the dealers that prepped the cars, not necessarily Toyota.

 

I did a couple tests today.

I thought I'd I should practice a throttle emergency (just in case there is a gremlin in the software). Here is what I found (performed in a 2010 Prius):

Test 1: Never lifted my foot off the gas pedal, then at 30 MPH the shifter was moved to neutral for about a second.
Result: Car stayed in drive.

Test 2: Never lifted my foot off the gas pedal, then at 30 MPH the shifter was moved to neutral and held there for about three or four seconds.
Result: Car went into neutral.


Test 3: At about 10 mph while driving in a straight line (no one else on the road) I pushed and held the power button for about three or four seconds.

Result: The engine shut down, power steering went away but I could still steer the car. Brakes worked; appeared to need more pressure, but at the low speed I can't say for sure how different it was.

When restarting the car it seemed to take a few seconds to "get it together". The "ready" light went on but the car would not respond. I shut it down again and restarted everything went ok. I must have pissed the car off.

Funny thing: 10 minutes later while stopped at a red light someone ran into the back of me at about <5 MPH. We both got out, took a look, no damage (not even a scratch) said good day and went our ways. It was an old beat up Toyota that hit me. Could it have been that old girl just wanted to kiss my young cute Prius?

 

lol....

 

Fstr911: First, thanks for the info on getting into Neutral (3 to 4 seconds wait), very useful!

Regarding your rear ending, did you check underneath the car that everything is fine? A few years ago my wife was rear ended relatively lightly at a red light. She went out of the car, checked the bumper and the other guy bumper, nothing to complain about, not a scratch. The other person wanted to give his business case but my wife said she did not need it, everything was fine. When she came home she told me story and I went to check the car. looked fine. Then I tried to pick-up her groceries from the back, impossible to open the rear gate, stuck. Took the car to a shop, the frame had shifted underneath, the floor buckled up locking the gate. No exteriror trace of damage on the bumper cover (but significant damage underneath it)! I ended up paying $1500 of repairs wtihout insurance coverage as we did not have any info on the other car...

Most likely this is not your case, but I just want to warn people that a visual look of the bumper is not enough. The plastic can bend badly and bounce back without a scratch hiding significant underneath problems. Always do a full check and get the info on the other car even if you don't end up needing it! Just my 2 cents (well my ,500,00 cents!)

 

Earman, true! I was rear ended this past August and I knew I was hit hard. The bumper was cracked and was falling off - but underneath, the floor pan down under the spare tire area was buckled (sort of mildly accordioned inwards) and from the outward appearance, I would never have guessed the actual damage was over $5000. I know a lot of that was the removal of the hybrid battery and other battery and all of the connections so the car could be fixed at the body shop offsite.

Di

 

Floormats Recall Information

Toyota will be mailing letters to the owners of the effected Toyotas being this week. This mailing will take place over the next several weeks. The vehicles that are in this campaigne will be:

Involved Toyota Models
2007 – 2010 Camry
2005 – 2010 Avalon
2004 – 2009 Prius
2005 – 2010 Tacoma
2007 – 2010 Tundra​

Simply put the letters will inform owners to do the following:​

1) Verify the floor mat on their vehicle is the one designed for that model vehicle. ​

2) Verify and insure that the correct floormat is secured by the appropriate retention devices (i.e. Toyota factory clips) to the floor of the vehicle. ​

3) Inform all owners NOT to stack floor mats on top of each other.​

The following website can be accessed by the owner:​

Toyota Vehicles : Toyota Begins Interim Notification to Owners Regarding Future Voluntary Safety Recall Related to Floor Mats / Toyota

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This is from Toyota Motor Sales:​

Toyota Begins Interim Notification to Owners Regarding Future Voluntary Safety Recall Related to Floor Mats

Letter Confirms No Defect Exists in Vehicles with Properly Installed Floor Mats​

Video: Toyota update on safety advisory http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/electronic.aspx?fid=84801&id=E0C16905 ​

TORRANCE, Calif., November 2, 2009 - - Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today announced that it has begun mailing letters to owners of certain Toyota and Lexus models regarding the potential for an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat to interfere with the accelerator pedal and cause it to get stuck in the wide-open position.​

The letter, in compliance with the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and reviewed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also confirms that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured.​

The Toyota finding is consistent with a recent decision by NHTSA denying a request for an additional investigation of unwanted and unintended acceleration of model year 2007 Lexus ES350 vehicles and model years 2002-2003 Lexus ES300. After conducting an extensive technical review of the issue, including interviews with consumers who had complained of unwanted acceleration, NHTSA concluded that “…the only defect trend related to vehicle speed control in the subject vehicles involved the potential for accelerator pedals to become trapped near the floor by out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat installations.”​

This is the sixth time in the past six years that NHTSA has undertaken such an exhaustive review of allegations of unintended acceleration on Toyota and Lexus vehicles and the sixth time the agency has found no vehicle based cause for the unwanted acceleration allegations.​

“The question of unintended acceleration involving Toyota and Lexus vehicles has been repeatedly and thoroughly investigated by NHTSA, without any finding of defect other than the risk from an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat,” said Bob Daly, TMS senior vice president.​

“Toyota takes public safety seriously. We believe our vehicles are among the safest on the road. Our engineers are working hard to develop an effective remedy that can help prevent floor mat interference with the pedal. As soon as it is ready, we will notify owners of the relevant models to bring their vehicle to a dealer for the necessary modification at no charge,” Mr. Daly added.​

In the recently completed investigation, NHTSA conducted extensive testing on a Lexus ES350. The agency reported that:​

“The vehicle was fully instrumented to monitor and acquire data relating to yaw rate, speed, acceleration, deceleration, brake pedal effort, brake line hydraulic pressure, brake pad temperature, engine vacuum, brake booster vacuum, throttle plate position, and accelerator pedal position. Multiple electrical signals were introduced into the electrical system to test the robustness of the electronics against single point failures due to electrical interference. The system proved to have multiple redundancies and showed no vulnerabilities to electrical signal activities. Magnetic fields were introduced in proximity to the throttle body and accelerator pedal potentiometers and did result in an increase in engine revolutions per minute (RPM) of up to approximately 1,000 RPM, similar to a cold-idle engine RPM level. Mechanical interferences at the throttle body caused the engine to shut down.”​

The Toyota letter is an interim notice to owners of a future voluntary safety recall campaign. The following models are affected:​

• 2007 – 2010 Camry
• 2005 – 2010 Avalon
• 2004 – 2009 Prius
• 2005 – 2010 Tacoma
• 2007 – 2010 Tundra
• 2007 – 2010 ES350
• 2006 – 2010 IS250 and IS350​

Until Toyota develops a remedy, it is asking owners of affected Toyota and Lexus models to take out any removable driver’s floor mat and NOT replace it with any other floor mat.​

The Toyota letter also informs owners of what to do if they experience accelerator pedal interference, general floor mat warnings and proper floor mat application information. Owners who have further questions are asked to visit http://www.toyota.com/floormats or http://www.lexus.com/floormats where the owner letter in its entirety can also be viewed. The most recent NHTSA report can be viewed on these websites as well.​

Click here for the NHTSA report​

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When can I buy Toyota all weather mats again?

 

I repeated tests 1 and 2 except with my foot off the accelerator. I got the same results: You have to hold the shifter in Neutral for a few seconds before it registers -- probably to prevent responding to accidental movement of the shifter.

If there is a gemlin in the software, I would just hope it would still recognize the shifter position and go into neutral. But I can't imagine that a trooper (supposedly trained in high-stress driving situations) wouldn't try to do just that.... Maybe he didn't wait the few seconds?

 

Because there was no recall of 2010 mats, I'm waiting for the class action suits for making me buy carpeted mats I did not want (I ordered all-weather) and then go to WeatherTech for their all-weather mats.

 

I think there is MORE than just floormat interference...

According to the news report this morning, Toyota tried to say that it was only a floor mats problem (and the above recall explanation confirms that), but after further investigation by Good Morning America, it was found out to also be happening on cars which didn't even have any floor mats installed at all.

The invited "expert" on the show said that in European cars (he didn't say how many models etc.) the accelerator or gas supply is cut off as soon as the brake is touched, and that this is what Toyota will probabbly have to do and there may be millions of cars recalled.

Of course this in only a report from Good Morning America not the most scientific source of info, but it does raise questions IMHO...

 

so.. same problem that's been reported on for 2 years or so ... plus.. it sounds like the 2010s react the same as the prior model... making it easiest to press park or reverse while in motion, in order to cause the car to go into N the fastest...


be sure to not hit park or reverse under 8mph as the car will drop the parking pin ( rather harsh shop. )... or it will shift into reverse. it's not as harsh.. yet the opposite of an emergency stop...

there's always 1 other option. Short the 12v side.. it shuts down the car... manual steering is a bit creepy (i've had it go manual on twice on mountain roads at high speed) .. feels very manual...

 

The CA trooper accident - was in a Lexus ES, right? So this vehicle has the typical console floor shift, which should go into neutral immediately. Something doesn't make sense; as you say with a highly trained person at the wheel...

My story:
I had a new 1969 Dodge Charger. In 1970 had an accident; sideswiped by a pickup truck. The impact apparently broke my V8's motor mount, the engine pivoted and then bent the accelerator linkage. This caused the engine to go full bore as I was braking from about 40mph, across the roadway. Almost at a stop, the rear tires were screeching rubber and I had (luckily) the sense to shift into neutral. The engine speed up to max RPM before I had a chance to turn the car off. I had my "shoulder belt" on and wasn't bounced around too badly. The car was never the same after repairs.

So, the Trooper driver with the supposed experience of maneuvering a police vehicle - one would think he'd have the background and knowledge to safely stop the vehicle. I don't know the particulars, so I have a lot of assumptions.

 

Did you pay $600-$1000 for the floor mats you didn't want? I did. God I hate car dealers.

 

I assume your Charger had a mechanical shift linkage. In the drive-by-wire systems, the computer controls everything. So my concern would be whether the car would go into neutral under the suspected failure scenario. I hope I never have to find out.

 

$600-1000? NO, THANK GOD. The MSRP is about $200, so who's charging 3-5 times that for mats? If that's the case, they're not car dealers, they're thieves!

I'll nominate you as the named plaintiff.:cheer2: