Information & Tips

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.

Late yesterday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the biggest recall of cribs in US history, involving some 2.1 million Stork Craft drop-side cribs. This includes about 147,000 Stork Craft drop-side cribs distributed under the Fisher-Price logo.

The hardware on the cribs’ drop-side is prone to deforming or breaking. This creates a space between the drop-side and the mattress, as seen in the image at left. Infants and toddlers can fall through the gap or become entrapped in the space, potentially suffocating.

This recall includes Stork Craft cribs sold in the US and Canada, and were sold at retailers including J.C. Penney, Kmart, Sears, Wal-Mart, USA Baby, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. They were also sold online at Amazon.com, Babiesrus.com, Costco.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com. Affected models have manufacturing and distribution dates between January 1993 and October 2009. This recall also includes all Stork Craft cribs with the Fisher-Price logo manufactured between October 1997 and December 2004. You can find the Fisher-Price label on the assembly instruction sheet attached to the mattress support board as shown below.

This is a quote given in 2007 by the president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach, regarding the famed ‘Red Ring of Death’: “The majority of Xbox 360 owners are having a great experience with their console and have from day one.”

And this is a quote posted yesterday on Microsoft’s Help and Support site, regarding the increasingly famous E74 error message: “While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays ‘E74’ on their screen.”