The Tacoma spare is under the bed suspended by a metal carrier that can rust.
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. is recalling 150,000 Tacoma pickup trucks from the 2001 to 2004 model years because rusted prices can fail and suddenly eject the spare tire from under the bed. While total U.S. Tacoma sales for those years are much higher, only vehicles originally sold or currently registered in 20 cold climate states and the District of Columbia will be inspected and have the spare tire carrier replaced if need be.
Critics of such limited actions maintain they do not fix all the potentially unsafe vehicles. Automakers use them to cut down on the costs of a full recall, and claim with some justification that they are fixing the problem. In this case, a Toyota spokesperson said that there were only two reports of accidents involving a vehicle behind a moving Tacoma, and no injuries.
Four years ago, though, Toyota recalled or repurchased and extended the warranty on 1995 through 2004 model year Tacoma pickup trucks since their frames were rusting and failing. Toyota ultimately covered the affected Tacoma pickups with 15-year, no mileage limit corrosion warranty.
In the latest Tacoma pickup recall, the spare tire is stored underneath the rear bed and suspended by a spare tire carrier on a metal lift plate. During manufacturing, the spare tire carrier may not have been sufficiently coated with a phosphate coating that inhibits corrosion. As a result, when combined with exposure to what Toyota says is high road salt use “more than normal corrosion” of the lift plate happens on some vehicles.
The 20 cold climate states are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Owners of the potentially unsafe Tacoma pickup trucks covered by this safety recall will receive an letter via first class mail starting sometime in December 2012. The legally required documentation submitted to NHTSA with a more complete account of the safety problem is not yet publicly available. Toyota, of course, has the dubious distinction of being fined almost $50 million by NHTSA – a record – for previous cover-ups of safety issues involving unintended acceleration. As a result, the largest automaker in Japan remains under scrutiny for any service or safety problem, no matter how small.
