Toyota Recall: Is Your Vehicle Affected?

[Ivan Seeking]

Investigation of runaway Prius vehicle found a particular pattern of wear on the car's brakes that raises questions about the driver's version of the event. Investigators were also unable to make the Prius speed out of control as California man detailed.

...But the investigation of the vehicle, carried out jointly by safety officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota engineers, didn't find signs the brakes had been applied at full force at high speeds over a sustained period of time, the three people familiar with the investigation said.

The brakes were discolored and showed wear, but the pattern of friction suggested the driver had intermittently applied moderate pressure on the brakes, these people said, adding the investigation didn't find indicators of the heavy pressure described by Sikes...

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/03/13/pattern-wear-runaway-prius-brakes-raises-questions/

 

[edward]

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/03/13/pattern-wear-runaway-prius-brakes-raises-questions/

There are some suggestions that the guy was faking it. He filed bankruptcy and still owes $20,000 on the vehicle.

The Prius will definitely stop under full acceleration. The Prius brakes do not use vacuum boost.



Getting the brakes to smoke is easy, just ride the brake pedal for a few minutes.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Toyota is having a news conference right now. "Significant inconsistencies" are found to exist between the man's story, and the details of the investigation. CNN cited a Congressional memo stating that the man's claims do not appear to be feasible.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

As I understand the crux of this, if the system failed and allowed braking while the drivetrain is powered, the motors/generator would be trying to operate in two states at once; this because the brakes use regenerative braking assist. This would result in damage to the motor/generator. Since no such damaged was detected, that condition never occurred. What isn't clear to me is if a failure of the regenerative braking assist could account for the events claimed by the driver? Is Toyota assuming that the braking assist was working, or was it physically impossible for the brakes to engage without disengaging the power drive. Apparently the braking override occurs when the force applied to the brake pedal exceeds a threshold value.

This may go back to the intial report that only moderate braking was indicated by the wear pattern on the brake linings.

 

[Brian_C]

Surprise, surprise. Old people are to blame.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/mar...en-acceleration-is-it-all-older-drivers-fault

 

[Proton Soup]

oh boy... maybe they could have overlaid something useful, like the percentage of the affected vehicle market occupied by each age group.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Lexus GX [460, 2010 model] is a 'Don't Buy' for shoppers, Consumer Reports says

April 13, 2010 | 9:20 a.m.

... The phenomenon, known as "lift-off oversteer" could occur "when a driver enters a highway's exit ramp or drives through a sweeping turn and encounters an unexpected obstacle or suddenly finds that the turn is too tight for the vehicle's speed," Consumer Reports said.

"A natural impulse is to quickly lift off the accelerator pedal. If that were to happen in the GX, the rear could slide around far enough that a wheel could strike a curb or slide off the pavement," the magazine said.

Consumer Reports contacted Toyota and was told in an e-mail response that the automaker was "mystified by the results of Consumer Reports testing on the Lexus GX 460."

After the magazine issued its do not buy warning, Toyota posted a statement on its website saying that it was "concerned with the results of Consumer Reports testing on the Lexus GX 460 and their suggested buyer recommendation."...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lexus14-2010apr14,0,5710692.story?track=rss

 

[edpell]

Is there any conflict of interest that the organization that issues recalls now owns a car company?

 

[Office_Shredder]

Wait until the guy that issues recalls wants the job of the guy that runs the car company

 

[edward]

Is there any conflict of interest that the organization that issues recalls now owns a car company?

The government didn't issue a recall. Consumers Reports put the vehicle on their don't buy list.

The stability control system was late kicking in.

 

[Topher925]

I thought everyone knew that Lexus makes crappy cars that no one should buy? Why is this in the news now?

 

[rootX]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12400986

Shares in Toyota have jumped nearly 5% after a US inquiry into reports of unintended acceleration found no electronic flaws in the company's cars.

I always wished for Toyota welfare and hence this news makes me happy.