Massachusetts Injury Lawyer Blog

A defective crankshaft pulley is driving a new Toyota recall that will affect thousands of car owners. The Nov. 8 recall of 550,000 vehicles includes 420,000 cars in the United States. Toyota has now issued recalls for more than 13 million vehicles nationwide since September 2009. More vehicles have been recalled in other countries.

Toyota recalled the vehicles due to a crankshaft pulley defect that may cause steering problems. The vehicles have V6 engines and the U.S. models include 283,200 Toyota brand cars like Camry and Highlander vehicles and 137,000 Lexus vehicles.

Toyota said no injuries have been reported. The car manufacturer said the crankshaft pulley may have an inadequate amount of adhesive agent between the outer ring and the inner ring. This can cause the crankshaft pulley to become misaligned with the inner ring, possibly causing a noise or warning signal to light. When this happens, the belt for the power steering pump can detach from the pulley, making it hard for drivers to steer.

Toyota recalled 8 million vehicles between Nov. 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, most for defective pedals. In April 2010, the United States government fined the world's largest automaker a record $16 million for its delayed response in notifying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the defects.

Recalls have continued through 2011, including last February's recall of 2.17 million vehicles to repair mechanical defects that could cause the cars to accelerate out of control.

The Nov. 8 recall involves these defective motor vehicles: the 2004 and 2005 Camry, Highlander, Sienna and Solara; the 2004 Avalon; and the 2006 Highlander HV. The affected Lexus models are the 2004 and 2005 ES 330 and RX 330 and the 2006 RX 400h.

In January, Toyota will mail car owners a notification to make an appointment to have their vehicle inspected. Toyota will fix any vehicle in need of repair at no cost to consumers.

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Two major manufacturers have issued car recalls impacting more than three million drivers.

Ford last week announced the recall of more than 1.22 million pickup trucks because of a corrosion problem that can result in a gas tank falling off and catching on fire. The recalled trucks include the popular F-150.

The Ford recall affects older trucks sold between 1997 and 2004 in Canada, Washington D.C. and 21 cold-weather states where salt is used on the roads to prevent icing in the winter. Massachusetts is among those states.

The Michigan car manufacturer plans to notify affected owners in September and will repair the trucks for free. The models include: Ford F-150 (1997-2003), the 2004 F-150 Heritage, the F-250 (1997-1999) and the Lincoln Blackwood (2002-2003).

Ford said it has received eight reports of tanks falling, resulting in three injuries.

This is the second recall action involving Ford trucks in four months. In April, Ford expanded a recall of F-150 pickups to about 1.2 million trucks. In that case, the problem was the front-seat airbags could deploy without a motor vehicle crash.

Also last week, Honda Motor Co. announced the recall of more than 2.49 million cars, SUVs and minivans with defective transmission software. The defect can affect a car's transmission if the software cannot keep up with movements, such as a vehicle trying to emerge from the snow or a driver moving between gears.

The Honda recall includes 1.5 million vehicles in the U.S., about 760,000 in China and 135,000 in Canada.

Globally, the recall affects four-cylinder Accord sedans (2005 - 2010). In the U.S. and Canada, the car recall also includes the CR-V crossover (2007 to 2010) and the small Element SUV from (2005 to 2008).

The company said no injuries or wrongful deaths have been reported due to the defect.

Honda will begin contacting U.S. consumers at the end of August about updating the software. The update will be free.

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