Toyota Prius - Special Service Campaign (Steering Shaft Assembly Issue)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Jul 20 2006, 02:24 AM) [snapback]289236[/snapback]</div>

Bill, you pose an interesting question. What mechanism does Toyota have to assure that the recall was accomplished for each car they pay for. Do they require the return of the old parts? Or do they, and we, have to depend on the dealer's good faith in properly accomplishing and reporting the fixes.

I suppose the stakes are high for both the dealer and TMC if, God forbid, an accident investigation were to turn up fraud in a vehicle reported as fixed. But is that all we have to depend upon?

Would our TMS USA member please reply to this question?

 

Whoops!

After posting the above, I stumbled upon the following report:


TOKYO (AP)--Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp.'s ™ president, Katsuaki Watanabe, apologized for recall troubles under police investigation in a 2004 accident that injured five people.

"I take this seriously and see it as a crisis," he said at a press conference and then bowed deeply. "I want to apologize deeply for the troubles we have caused."

Earlier this month, police said they were sending papers to prosecutors on three Toyota officials in a criminal investigation on suspicion of professional negligence for allegedly shirking recalls for eight years.

The defects being investigated, a suspected faulty steering part, may have caused a August 2004 head-on crash that injured five people.

Toyota has denied the officials had engaged in any wrongdoing and has been cooperating fully with the investigation.

Toyota carried out the recall in October 2004 although police suspect the officials knew about the problems for eight years.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(genalex @ Jul 20 2006, 02:04 AM) [snapback]289251[/snapback]</div>

I watched from the Toyota dealer's waiting room the mechanic work on my Prius when SSC 60C was done. I wasn't real reassured when the mechanic was scrolling through Toyota's directions on performing the recall (his first one?) but at least he was trying. I saw him go to the parts department and obtain the new intermediate shaft (actually talked with him then and he showed me the new one) and watched as he removed the old shaft and replaced it with the new one (old one went on his work bench). He also inspected other parts of the steering linkage and I watched as he inspected it with a spot light and torqued some bolt.


Even doing all this, I STILL had the problem with the steering alignment (He DIDN'T follow Toyota's directions about securing the steering wheel with the seat belt).

 

toyota requires that all parts replaced under warranty are sent back to them upon request. there are periodic audits of dealer replaced-parts inventory if deemed necessary, and this is monitored closely.

in a case of fraud, it wouldn't take long for the person responsible to be sh**canned and the owner of the vehicle called back for a proper repair.

it was strongly reinforced at DH's workplace that they are to comply strictly with these regulations or find themselves another job.

 

Well, we got our notice recently (last week I believe) and I'm scheduled to go in Wednesday morning. Hopefully all will go well, we've had decent (not great, not bad) service experiences so far, but I haven't taken ours in since the last recall, I've been doing my own maintenance since then, so they may have improved. Either way, I'll be paying close attention to the steering wheel both before and after I take it in, just in case.

 

I received a letter from Toyota a couple of weeks ago and immediately took my '05 Prius to an Austin, TX, dealership. They had to order the steering parts and in a few days I took it back and they installed the parts and I was out of there in a couple of hours. DONE DEAL! Like some have mentioned before, Toyota addresses the issues at hand, fixes them, and all is back to normal. I don't like the negative press about Toyota either, but every car maker makes mistakes..it's how they handle themselves after the fact. Toyota has proven that time in and time out.

 

Summary of my recall-related experience at Longo today: Went in at around 11:30am for my appointment to do oil, rotate tires, and steering-recall SSC 60C. They projected it'll be done around 4pm (I guess they're busy and it is Friday), but it is MUCH longer than what people have been getting it done in, in this thread, and Mr. DH is lightspeeds faster.

Except for the current heat wave, it was a royal experience. Oil was filled exactly as I specified to nearly 3.5qts, tire pressures evened it to 40psi (I'll fix that to 39/37 soon), detailed brake/tire life/status summary sheet that I've never seen before, and my steering wheel is 100% straight again - it was leaning 2-3 degrees to the right when I went in. I'm not sure if the steering feeling is any crisper yet until I drive my normal route back home from work early Sat morn.

My only complaints are they messed with my side-mirror settings, ran my battery down to 2 purple/pink bars, dropped my MPG from 50.1 to 49.1, put 7 miles on the odometer (probably to test the steering alignment), and an insane $1K quote for TRD Sportivo installation.

 

Got my SSC 60C. Dealer did their inspection of the threads & said I needed the replacement. He said there's shortage of the parts and I'm on a two week backorder. So there may be a wait for others if this is an issue all around, as he said.

 

I had the SSC done last week and noticed they didn't post a sticker with the SSC # and date done, like they did for the previous SSC. Should I have one to prove the service was provided?

 

I didn't have much luck with timing on my recall. in by 9:50 AM, out by 11:45. Tim's Toyota in Prescott, AZ must have been real busy that with oil changes. Actually, I think they have a limited tech staff. There was no one left in the waiting room when I finally got my car back, and some people who came in after me left before me.

Steering is no different than before. Car still dirty.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ Jul 21 2006, 08:17 PM) [snapback]290303[/snapback]</div>

You could do it yourself <G>
http://www.spydermagazine.com/2002/Jan/sportivo/sportivo.htm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bill Merchant @ Jul 20 2006, 12:24 AM) [snapback]289236[/snapback]</div>

Oh, I meant the optimized pdf of the 30 pager...

 

The version of the SSC PDF package I downloaded from TIS was 39 pages, 1.82 MB.

 

I was referring to the link in this post (#96 in this thread) from LosAltosPrius. Click it and download a 33MB, 42 page PDF, with detailed instructions beginning on page 10.

 

Ah, I see. Except for the first few pages, that is the same document I downloaded from TIS as 1.82 MB.

So you're probably getting ready to ask, "If it is the same document, why is one so large?" Well, the reason is that the NHTSA scanned the paper document into a PDF rather than creating it from a digital file. In other words, the smaller TIS verison contains pictures, words, individual characters, lines, etc. embedded in the file. The larger NHTSA version is basically a "picture" of the words, individual characters, lines, etc. Each page is essentially a very large bitmap image; hence the larger file size.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brandon @ Jul 22 2006, 06:36 PM) [snapback]290717[/snapback]</div>

I know. I tried to extract text and couldn't. Your Tax Dollars At Work! On the other hand, I didn't have to pay TIS for the download. And Vancouver Toyota still didn't follow the Toyota approved procedure. They must know more than the manufacturer when it comes to recalls.

 

Thank You Toyota for the notification. I have taken my Prius in for the recall. Now my steering seems to be 5 degrees off and I now have a click in my shifter that I did not have before.

Another note, I have a warp in my dash board just above the glove compartment. The glove compartment won't open now. I have the extended warranty ( 10yr/100K). I'm afraid the Air Bag is affected just like the glove compartment is.

Can you give me guidance on how to have these issues resolved easily. I have 63,000 miles and bought my Prius in Oct '03.




<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TMS USA @ May 30 2006, 06:10 PM) [snapback]263108[/snapback]</div>

 

I had my car done (SCC-60C)about 2 weeks ago. I got right in at 8:45am and out by 11am. (Bob Sellers Toyota, Flagstaff AZ) I now notice it seems that my steering is off to the right by about 5 degrees AND there is a clicking when I use the shift knob to change from Park to Drive or Reverse! Anyone else with this problem? How'd you get it fixed. I have 63K mileage and 10yr/100K warranty. thanks in advance.




<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tumbleweed @ Jul 17 2006, 01:27 PM) [snapback]287708[/snapback]</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Moby Whaley @ Jul 23 2006, 10:47 AM) [snapback]290933[/snapback]</div>

hi Moby-

if you take a quick glance through this thread, you'll see you're far from alone in having the steering wheel slightly off. i've posted instructions eariler in this thread on what to do, basically it involves taking the car back and having them readjust the new part but NOT having them do an alignment.

i don't know how the click in your shifter came about, however, if you're concerned you may want to bring that up when you take the car back for the steering wheel adjustment.

there has been a thread here also on the dash warping issue, it's because of a couple of failed springs. this should also be taken care of by your dealer.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Moby Whaley @ Jul 23 2006, 08:47 AM) [snapback]290933[/snapback]</div>

Interestingly enough, my wife just showed me her dash on the 04. After my driving it for 2 years, the dash had not warped, but within the last month, with the car 2.5 years old and with 40someK on it, the passenger dash has warped, and you have to press on the warped spot in order to open the upper compartment.

Luckily I also have the 7/75 ExtWarr, it's the annoyance of taking it in to get the new part ordered, etc, that will be a pain.