Toyota debuted a worldwide recall due to valve springs problems (you can read the tech explanation here) that could lead to engine stalling and even cause serious powerplant damage. The campaign affects 270,000 vehicles, including Lexus cars sold around the world and the Japanese Domestic Market Toyota Crown.
In August 2008, Toyota started using a new spring part that was thicker, in an effort to solve the problem, spokesman Hideaki Homma told the Associated Press. Thus, the recall only affects vehicles that belong to the 2006-2008 model years (the last ones were produced in August 2008).
Toyota claims that it blamed the problem on a foreign material that had contaminated the springs during the manufacturing process, but it considered the issue to be an isolated one and therefore didn’t issue a recall.
"We changed the part in August because then the problem won't happen at all, even if tiny particles enter during manufacturing," Homma was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source. "We are talking about microscopic particles here."
However, the owners started filling more and more complaints and the automotive producer decided to debut a call back campaign. The company made the announcement that informed us about the 270,000 vehicles with faulty engines last week and, as we mentioned, debuted the recall this week.
The company’s UK division announced that the fixing operation, which involves replacing the valve springs, takes between 7 and 22 hours for each car, depending on the model.
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