Short stories about Toyota Camry recalls, lawsuits, and other interesting bits. Signup to have these stories emailed to you for free from CarComplaints.com.
A judge in California has ruled in favor of dismissing a soy-wiring lawsuit because, in the court's eyes, the problems don't violate the terms of Toyota's express warranty.…
keep reading article "Judge Doesn’t Buy Claims of Soy Wiring Lawsuits"While an insurance company paid the bulk, a new lawsuit filed in Massachusetts wants to know when Toyota is going to pay for the decision to go with soy?…
keep reading article "A Second Soy-Wiring Lawsuit Has Been Filed in Massachusetts"According to the plaintiff, she learned the hard way about the soy wiring when her Avalon wouldn't start and a look under the hood showed wires chewed, so she had the car towed to a dealer. Toyota told her rodents had caused the damage and it would be no problem to repair the problems as long as she could cough up $6,000 to cover the bill.
The soy-based wiring is allegedly attracting in rodents, who love to chew it up and use it for nesting material. The lawsuit, Heidi Browder vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al. follows a similar lawsuit filed against Honda earlier this year.
keep reading article "Lawsuit Says Toyota’s Use of Soy-Based Wiring is Attracting Rodent Damage". The Camry's ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) uses an evaporator inside the vehicle's dashboard. According to the plaintiffs, as cold refrigerant passes into the evaporator it mixes with warm air from the passenger cabin to create moisture. The condenser moisture mixes with things from the HVAC's outside vents – dead insects, pollen, leaves, and other fun stuff – to eventually turn into a moldy and stinky mess.…
keep reading article "Toyota Camry Musty A/C Lawsuit"So, how are things going? According to [a] lawsuit, when Toyota first announced the warranty program the automaker notified customers and said it could take months to gather the replacement parts. However, Toyota then sent a second notice that removed the information about a timeline for repairs.
Oh, well it can't be too long before everyone gets their replacement dash, right?…
keep reading article "Owners Are Still Waiting For Replacement Dashboards"Why do automakers bother with recalls about stickers? Because of federal law. Based on federal regulations, a load carrying modification label must be added to a vehicle if weight exceeding the lesser of 1.5 percent of 100 pounds is added to a vehicle between final vehicle certification and the first retail sale of the vehicle. Any corrected values must be accurate to within 1 percent of the actual added weight.
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If you like it really toasty — as in, with an actual flame — you’ll probably love one of 7,700 Toyota vehicles with seat heaters that catch on fire. The vehicles have been recalled because fire and cars don’t get along, what with their tanks of highly flammable liquids and all. All the affected vehicles are equipped with aftermarket accessory seat heaters that contain copper strand heating elements. The recall is being handled by Southeast Toyota Distributors (SET) which is the world’s largest distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles.
The recall is expected to begin on July 14, 2016 and the seat heaters will need to be disconnected. Owners will be reimbursed.
keep reading article "Toyota Wants to Stop Seat Heaters From Setting Owner's Buns on Fire"(Toyota) says 41,630 model year 2016 Camry sedans and 16,880 model year 2016 Avalon cars have front passenger airbags, including knee airbags, that can fail to deploy.
So far there aren't many details about this recall, but Toyota will need to recalibrate the OCS soon. Watch your mailbox for an official notice.
keep reading article "Airbags Recalled Because of OCS Failures"And so, when Corolla owner Robert Ruginis petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate low-speed surging in the 2006-2010 Corolla, it seemed like a slam dunk, home run or <insert sports cliché here>. Go sports team! But instead NHTSA said no to the investigation. The agency said they analyzed data from an event recorder cited by Ruginis in his petition and came up with a completely different conclusion. Ruginis said his Corolla moved forward with the brake pedal pressed, NHTSA said it didn't. Ruginis said Corollas can move forward even with the brake pressed to the floor, NHTSA said they can't.
Instead, NHTSA placed the blame on Corolla drivers in most cases. They also said an investigation wasn't worth their time:…
keep reading article "NHTSA Says No to Unintended Acceleration Investigation"The circuit board was probably messed up during assembly and can cause a sudden loss of power steering. If you're traveling at slow speeds and your power steering suddenly goes away, pulling over to the side of the road is going to feel like you're steering through a vat of caramel. That sounds delicious, by the way.…
keep reading article "Power Steering Circuit Recall"The deformed dashes have also been known to extrude a strange, goo-like substance that is oddly shiny and sticky; like something you'd find in a toddler's coat pocket. This led to some understandably upset owners and a couple of lawsuits. Feeling the heat of pending litigation, Toyota announced they will extend warranty coverage on the dashboards in 3.5 million vehicles rather than go to court. I guess they wanted to avoid a sticky situation (I never promised that the jokes would be good, folks).…
keep reading article "Toyota Tries to Get Out of Sticky Dashboard Situation with Warranty Extension"A new lawsuit says Toyota designed, manufactured and subsequently ignored dangerous Velveeta-like dashboards in the 2006-2008 [Lexus ES][4], [Lexus IS][6] and the 2007-2009 [Toyota Camry][7]. The lead plaintiff, Melissa Graham, says the melting conditions create a glossy film on the dashboard that make it difficult to see when it's sunny out. Melissa should just move to northern VT, it feels like my house has been under a never-ending wall of clouds the entire month of November. But I digress...…
keep reading article "Toyota Melting Dashboard Lawsuit"Toyota says a bolt hole in the left front lower suspension is much bigger than specifications allow. That means the bolt going through that hole can --- and most likely will --- loosen over time…
keep reading article "Manufacturing Error Could Cause Total Steering Loss in 2014 Vehicles"They had, after all, recalled millions of cars, paid hefty fines to the government, entered talks to settle hundreds of class-action lawsuits and even paid out $1.6 billion to owners because the trade-in value of their vehicles had diminished. Besides, the world's attention had turned to GM's ignition switch fiasco. So are Toyota's problems with unintended acceleration in the rearview mirror? Not so fast, or in this case ... slow.…
keep reading article "New Unintended Acceleration Petition Filed"Go ahead, I'll wait ... if you said flammable liquids and sparks you're absolutely right! Bonus points to anyone that said republicans and democrats which is also 100% correct these days. Toyota recently announced it is recalling 20,000 vehicles that could experience gas leaks. Anytime flammable liquid is somewhere it shouldn't be, there's a chance for fire. Here's a breakdown of what you need to know:…
keep reading article "Popular Models With Bad Welds Are Leaking Gas"The best way to find out what's wrong with a vehicle is from the people who drive them. Not only do owner complaints help us rank vehicles by reliability, but they're often used to spark class-action lawsuits and warranty extensions. Plus, they're a great way to vent.