Toyota to recall 3.8 million vehicles

I Received the "Interim Notice" from Toyota in Today's Mail

I just received in today's mail my first correspondence from Toyota regarding the floor mat issue in the Gen II Prius.

On the envelope it says:

SAFETY RECALL NOTICE
Interim Information for Potential Floor Mat
Interference with Accelerator Pedal

The enclosed notice is captioned:

Certain 2004 through 2009 Model Year Prius

Potential Floor Mat Interference with Accelerator Pedal

Safety Recall Campaign (Interim Notice)

The notice itself doesn't say anything that hasn't been said before.

But it does say that Toyota is developing a "campaign remedy" for driver side mats that are not compatible with the vehicle and properly secured, and will notify owners when the remedy is ready.
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This is used in what is called a 'forced charge.' The engine runs and MG1 puts a charge on the traction battery. IMHO, it should only work when the car is stationary and in "Park."

Bob Wilson

 

I bought '09 Prius in 3/09 and in 9/09 had the unintended acceleration thing happen to me 2 times, both when accelerating quickly to pass. Then a third time my husband tested it and floored it on a country road and it happened to him too. We each had to JAM on the brakes to get it to stop. My all-weather floor mat was installed at the dealer and has never been out of place or unhooked. I checked the floor mat and it is not near the pedal. These incidents were pretty scary and I'm lucky there was no accident. The pedal was to the floor and was "gone" - nothing to press down, and dead. I didn't think it had anything to do w/the floor mat at the time, and after finding out about the floor mat problem I checked mine and it still seems fine and in place. I've been careful since Sep. and have not had any reoccurances. There is no junk on the floor and I never use cruise control, and since this happened 3 times to 2 different drivers I don't think the cruise control was accidentally set off. I've been driving a longggg time. Never had this happen. Weird and scary.

 

Not sure what this means... Are you saying that the accelerator pedal remained fully depressed even when your foot was off the pedal?

If yes, and the floor mat was not holding it down, then the accelerator pedal mechanism should be replaced, since it sounds like it has stuck 3x. That is a pretty simple and inexpensive repair.

 

Under the regional direction our service department did the first of the pedal / padding adjustments with a vehicle involved in the recall. It was a Camry. Basically they removed padding on the floor of the footwell and shaved the pedal. This is what was required by the NHTSA recall.

But...what was interesting is that on it's own initiative Toyota brought in a unit / computer to reflash the logic between the brake pedal and throttle!!!! Now on that unit when the brake is held down for a certain period the throttle goes to idle - even if it too is being held down!!!

Smart Pedal retro-fit.

 

Hi Bob,

Are you aware of any plans to change Prius hybrid vehicle ECU firmware regarding this issue? (Yes, I know that when the Prius brake pedal is depressed, that will override the accelerator pedal position when the car is working properly. Just wondering whether other action is being taken on Prius, besides floor mats and accelerator pedal shape.)

 

Prius does not use a vacuum booster. The accumulator stores pressurized brake fluid.
More info can be found here:
http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/Hybrid16.pdf

 

Really confused by Toyota's solution if my 2008 Prius experiences unintended acceleration. They state that you should put car in neutral and apply the brake, they then indicate that if you have a keyless remote you should firmly press the power button to shut off the motor. Our local dealer has twice confirmed these steps.

If you follow this direction the car goes into park. If you are doing anything over 5 mph the transmission will be ruined.

Am I missing something and not reading their letter correctly?

Any ideas. Thanks

 

No, speeds >5 mph the car will shift into neutral. Speeds <5 mph, the electric park pawl may engage

 

(1) As Jayman pointed out, it won't go into park.

While I haven't personally tested that, I have repeatedly commanded (in my GenIII, not a GenII) a shift to Reverse, and found that it instantly goes into Neutral with a double-beep warning. No damage, no grinding, not even a little jolt.

(2) If you have a real unintended acceleration event, such as the San Diego runaway Lexus or the Denver Prius-in-a-creek or the post-Christmas Toyota in a Texas lake, why do you care about transmission damage? A wrecked transmission is a much safer and cheaper result than those disasters.

I have personally experienced 'unintended acceleration' in a past car, not a Toyota. It was 'pilot error' induced by extreme fatigue, but was reflexively resolved almost instantly. But since Prius doesn't have a clutch, I have practiced other means of stopping this thing.

 

Denver Prius-in-a-creek

I missed that one, any link, need a good laugh

 

Terror on the Roads: Runaway Toyotas - ABC News

now there is a problem with the gas pedal not related to the prus and what do you thin abc news uses for the first picture..... yes a prius..

 

Thanks to both of you. I hope I don't have to ever try this out. I will certainly opt for a possibly mashed transmission over the other options. Thanks for the peace of mind you provided. Toyota needs to do a better job of explaining this. Thanks

 

FWD points to the right place, see slide #3 (maybe I should have said river):

ABC put this story up last fall, about the same time as the nearly-Toyota-wide floor mat recall, so a Prius as a headliner was not devious then.

But what go me was the caption on picture #2 at this link: "She was driving on Interstate 70 outside Denver three years ago...". The picture looks nothing like I-70 or any Interstate I've ever seen.

 

I was hoping this would be the last time I had to worry about floor mats:

On Monday, I took the same car to the oldest, best-known car washing place in Huntsville. The tree sap and general use meant it needed a good cleaning. But when I returned from lunch, I noticed some leaves had blown in from my open window and I discovered:

The left hook was still in the anchor but disconnected from the floor mat. The right hook was in the floor mat but disconnected from the anchor. It was easy to fix but if I hadn't gone there to remove the leaves, I would not have known the floor mat was loose . . . again.

They did a 'good enough' job on the exterior wash but I'm not so thrilled about going there again. Not just because of the floor mat but because they missed some obvious areas of the cabin (i.e., dust on the passenger side, dash.) Guess I'll have to 'detail' the car myself next time.

Bob Wilson