Toyota Motor Corp. this week issued a massive recall of 6.39 million vehicles worldwide for a range of glitches, from faulty airbags and seat rails to defective windshield wipers.The action covers five separate recalls, affecting about 2.34 million vehicles in North America and 810,000 in Europe. Toyota said it is unaware of any crashes, injuries or deaths caused by the problems, which span more than a dozen nameplates. The largest of the five recalls this week, which covers spiral cables in airbags, ranks No. 4 in Toyota’s recall roster.
Here is a breakdown of the latest recalls and the units involved:
- Faulty spiral cables for driver’s air bags: 3.5 million
- Possible locking problems on seat rails: 2.32 million
- Failing steering column brackets: 760,000
- Windshield wipers with drainage problems: 160,000
- Possible fire hazard in starter motors: 20,000
The recalls total 6.76 million vehicles. But because some vehicles are involved in more than one recall, only 6.39 million vehicles are being remedied. The 3.5-million vehicle spiral cable recall, the largest of the fixes, addresses a cable that can become damaged when the steering wheel turns. This may trigger a warning lamp and deactivate the air bag causing it not to deploy in a crash. Also on the fix-it list are driver’s side seat rails that may not lock in the adjusted position. In some cases, the seat may move forward during an accident.
Outside of Japan, the spiral cable recall involves certain models of the RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Yaris, Yaris Sedan, Highlander, Tacoma, Reiz, Hilux, Fortuner, Innova, Land Cruiser Prado and Camry nameplates.
