Toyota Camry, Venza and Tacoma Recall Affects 681,500 Units

Over the last few years, the words “Toyota” and “recall” have gone hand in hand. While the companies previous woes are behind them, Toyota has since been extra cautious and issues recalls for everything it finds to have a potential defect.

Just today, Toyota has announced a recall notice for three of its vehicles, the 2009 Camry, the 2009 – 2011 Venza, and the 2005 – 2009 Tacoma pick-up truck.

The Camry and Venza share the same defect. According to Toyota; “during the installation of the contact-type stop lamp switch on one of the North American assembly lines, silicon grease may have reached the inside of the switch and caused an increase in electrical resistance. If this occurs, warning lamps on the instrument panel may be illuminated, the vehicle may not start, or the shift lever may not shift from the ‘Park’ position. In some cases, the vehicle stop lamps may become inoperative.”

A total of 70,500 Camry’s and 116,000 Venza models are affected and Toyota will be informing their customers via first class mail. The repair should take roughly 30-minutes to complete at a Toyota dealership.

If you own a 2005 – early 2009 Tacoma pick-up truck, you will also receive a recall notice via first class mail very soon. The Tacoma’s recall is to replace the steering wheel spiral cable assembly.

According to Toyota; “due to the combination of steering wheel spiral cable design and characteristics unique to the Tacoma chassis, friction between the spiral cable and the retainer in the steering wheel spiral cable assembly may occur in some vehicles. Friction over time may result in loss of connectivity to the driver’s air bag module. If connectivity is lost, the air bag warning lamp on the instrument panel will remain illuminated after starting the vehicle and the driver’s air bag may be deactivated, preventing deployment in the event of a crash. ”

A total of 495,000 Tacoma’s are potentially affected. This brings the grand total to 681,500 vehicles to receive a recall service, which is surely going to be costly. However, Toyota has learned from the past and will act on correcting these issues as soon as possible.

If you believe your vehicle might be affected, you can contact Toyota’s Customer Experience Center by dialing 1-800-331-4331.