In today’s news, more safety recalls for the world’s largest automaker must have consumers wondering what in the world is going on? Toyota Motor Corp. announced today that they will be recalling 550,000 vehiclesworldwide. The majority of the impact will be in North America where 447,000 cars will be recalled, spreading the rest minor portion of wealth around the globe. These include Japan with 38,000, Australia and New Zealand at 25,000, Europe 14,000, Middle East 10,000, and finally Asia with 14,000.
The problem seems to be that the outer ring of the crankshaft pulley might become misaligned with the inner ring causing noise and signaling the warning light. If the problem is not fixed, the power steering belt could detached making it difficult to steer. This issue is only for Toyota and Lexus V6 engines. Two hundred and eighty-three thousand Toyota brand cars, including the ’04 and ’05 Camry, Highlander, Sienna and Solara, the ’04 Avalon and the ’06 Highlander HV. Lexus vehicles includes the ’04 and ’05 ES330 and RX330 and ’06 RX400h with 137,000.
Fortunately, for Toyota and its drivers, no reports of accidents or injures has come up due to the problem. At the moment, Toyota is in the process of making sufficient quantities of replacement parts, waiting ’til January 2012 to send out mail notifications to its owners to make an appointment with Toyota or Lexus dealership to have the pulley inspected, and replaced free of charge, if necessary.
