February, 2010 Archives

Honda has recently joined the ranks of major automakers plagued by a slew of recalls. Earlier today the automaker announced the expansion of an earlier airbag recall. The recall now extends to 438,000 new vehicles. Affected models include some 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, CR-V, and Odyssey models.

This recall is due to dangers caused by the airbag inflators, which can place too much force on the airbag when deployed. This can fracture the inflator and producing metal shards. So far this has resulted in 12 incidents, including one fatality.

One of the great things about FixYa’s large group of Experts is that many of them have led very illustrious careers, and are highly placed in companies and organizations of interest to the technical support sphere. So when very major events, such as Toyota’s recall of 5.3 million vehicles makes the news, our Experts are often in a position to give us some real insight into what’s going on behind the scenes.

One such Expert is Toyota Ed, an award-winning Service and Customer Relations Manager at his Toyota dealership. Having worked with Toyota for years, Ed has unique insight into the situation. He set the record straight about the current recalls and the actual scope of the problem, showing that consumers needn’t panic.

Ed started by saying that “the current situation that Toyota is experiencing with the alleged sticking accelerator pedals has been grossly exaggerated,” and went on to explain the situation to us:

The truth is that there are two different manufacturers of the accelerator pedals- Denso and CTS. CTS is the manufacturer of the alleged defective unit, and is installed in roughly 50% of the vehicles produced in the US only. The Denso pedal has not been found to have any issues whatsoever.

On Monday, Toyota issued a second recall of several popular models due to safety issues. The number of cars recalled continues to climb, and has already affected some 5.3 million vehicles.

The most recent recall, “Pedal” involves the possibility that some accelerator pedal mechanisms may mechanically stick in a partially depressed position, or return slowly to the idle position. Affected models include the following:

• Certain 2009-2010 RAV4
• Certain 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• Certain 2007-2010 Camry
• Certain 2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

Toyota’s engineers have developed a solution for vehicles currently in production, as well as vehicles already on the road, and repair kits have already begun shipping to Toyota dealers.

One of the best sources for technical information on FixYa is our growing Tips & How-To’s section. This is where our Experts aggregate the knowledge acquired during their time in the field into Tips, which are then made available to anyone searching for a related solution. Experts who create high-quality Tips can actually become Premium Tips Experts, and earn money for the Tips they write.

While some Experts are just learning how to make the most of this system, one Expert who is really setting the standard is heatman101, who has already posted an astonishing 132 Tips since joining FixYa in November 09. Not to be overlooked, his 542 solutions and 97% rating are also testaments to his impressive skill as a technician.