Toyota Recalls Tundra Pickups for Rear Drive Shaft Failures

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. today announced it will conduct a safety recall on approximately 51,000, 2011 model year Toyota Tundra trucks to inspect the rear drive shaft. The rear drive shaft on Tundra models may include a defective slip yoke that could break due to improper casting during the foundry process.

Toyota is aware of one drive shaft slip yoke failure in a customer-owned vehicle. There are no reports of accidents or injuries associated with this condition. No other Lexus or Toyota vehicles are involved in this recall, Toyota said in a statement.

This is at least the fifth Toyota recall thus far in 2011,  depending whether you count safety recall problem type or a much larger number of models involved.

Owners of the involved vehicles will receive a letter advising them of this recall by first class mail starting in May 2011. Toyota will also post this information on its website.

Toyota dealers will look to identify a specific “production lot” number located on the rear drive shaft. Based upon the inspection results, in a limited number of cases, the rear drive shaft may need to be replaced.

The inspection is estimated to take ten minutes. If the rear drive shaft needs to be replaced, the repair will take more time depending on the dealer workload. The inspection and/or replacement will be performed at no cost to the vehicle owner as is required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

More information and answers to questions are available to customers at www.toyota.com/recall and the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.