Toyota knew about Lexus engine problem 2 years ago

Lexus LS

By now most of you have probably heard of Toyota’s latest recall involving flaws in the valve springs that could cause the engine to stall while the vehicle is in motion. Toyota has already issued a recall of 91,903 Lexus and Crown vehicles in Japan and plans on recalling at least 138,000 in the United States. The global recall involves some 270,000 vehicles.

Toyota admitted today that it knew about the engine problem two years ago and changed the spring part to correct it in August 2008. That is why the recall does affect vehicles build after August 2008. However, for models built before that with faulty valve springs, Toyota didn’t think a recall was necessary until now.

Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said that the company had thought it was an isolated problem that didn’t require a recall.

“We changed the part in August because then the problem won’t happen at all, even if tiny particles enter during manufacturing,” Homma said. “We are talking about microscopic particles here.”

Nonetheless, when complaints started climbing, Toyota figured it wasn’t an isolated problem and decided to issue a recall.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Detroit News