Photo: Toyota
Recalls are an ordinary state of affairs in the automotive business, and even if most of the time they come as a hassle for owners, each of them is ultimately getting safer when a carmaker discovers a fault and is willing to fix it, free of charge.
The reasons for recalls are as diverse as they get, with some being more of an inconvenience than an actual danger (like say the reverse gear warning sound that plays in any gear on the Mazda CX-90), while others look and feel like one of those scary scenarios from Final Destination.
Imagine this: you drive down the road and all of a sudden a fuel tube made of plastic you don't even know exists starts rubbing against one of your car's brake lines, to which you also give little consideration. In time, all that rubbing leads to a puncture in the brake line, and brake fluid starts leaking.
Generally speaking, this stuff is flammable, so if it somehow ends up in contact with an ignition source, it could catch fire and set your car ablaze. It's not something that will happen for sure, but there's a chance it might.
And that's exactly what Japanese carmaker Toyota said it could happen to the (still) brand-new Tundra pickups because of a fault it discovered. And by brand new I mean vehicles manufactured as 2022 and 2023 model years.
The recall announced this week by Toyota on account of the potentially dangerous plastic fuel tube is not minor. Seeing how pickups are all the craze in the U.S., and the Tundra is a favorite go-to platform for customers, the carmaker will have to pull back no less than 168,000 vehicles. They are all of both the regular and hybrid Tundra varieties.
The fix is, like in so many similar cases, quite simple, and it involves dealers replacing the fuel tube and securing it in place with additional clamps. We're not told exactly how the tube is different, only that it is "improved” and its production has already begun.
The problem is the new tubes will probably take a while to manufacture, so the carmaker's dealers will at first, as a temporary measure, "install protective materials and a clamp on the fuel tube."
What it means is that yes, some of the owners of affected Tundras will probably have to take a trip to the car service twice to get the same problem fixed, first temporarily and then permanently.
As usual, Toyota will soon begin notifying customers and expects them all to be in the loop by October 2023. Both the temporary and the permanent fixes will be conducted at no cost in money for the people affected by this issue.
Imagine this: you drive down the road and all of a sudden a fuel tube made of plastic you don't even know exists starts rubbing against one of your car's brake lines, to which you also give little consideration. In time, all that rubbing leads to a puncture in the brake line, and brake fluid starts leaking.
Generally speaking, this stuff is flammable, so if it somehow ends up in contact with an ignition source, it could catch fire and set your car ablaze. It's not something that will happen for sure, but there's a chance it might.
And that's exactly what Japanese carmaker Toyota said it could happen to the (still) brand-new Tundra pickups because of a fault it discovered. And by brand new I mean vehicles manufactured as 2022 and 2023 model years.
The recall announced this week by Toyota on account of the potentially dangerous plastic fuel tube is not minor. Seeing how pickups are all the craze in the U.S., and the Tundra is a favorite go-to platform for customers, the carmaker will have to pull back no less than 168,000 vehicles. They are all of both the regular and hybrid Tundra varieties.
The fix is, like in so many similar cases, quite simple, and it involves dealers replacing the fuel tube and securing it in place with additional clamps. We're not told exactly how the tube is different, only that it is "improved” and its production has already begun.
The problem is the new tubes will probably take a while to manufacture, so the carmaker's dealers will at first, as a temporary measure, "install protective materials and a clamp on the fuel tube."
What it means is that yes, some of the owners of affected Tundras will probably have to take a trip to the car service twice to get the same problem fixed, first temporarily and then permanently.
As usual, Toyota will soon begin notifying customers and expects them all to be in the loop by October 2023. Both the temporary and the permanent fixes will be conducted at no cost in money for the people affected by this issue.
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