Laguna Hills, CA – October 12, 2018 – Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain 2018-2019 Toyota Tundra and Sequoia vehicles and 2019 Toyota Avalon and Avalon Hybrid vehicles due to a programming error that could affect air bag deployment.
The Defect
According to the NHTSA Safety Recall Report, Toyota has determined that due to inappropriate programming of the air bag electronic control unit (ECU), a fault may be erroneously detected and disable a front or side supplemental restraint system (SRS) sensor.
If this were to occur, the air bag ECU may not appropriately identify a crash condition, the air bags may not deploy as intended, and as a result, this could lead to an increased risk of injury in the event of a crash.
Timeline of Events
Toyota received reports describing illumination of the SRS warning light accompanied by a warning buzzer, master warning light illumination, and a message on the multi-information display, and began an investigation in June 2018.
A review of the Airbag ECU software identified that parameters for a routine self-check were not correct for the type of satellite sensors used in this system. This can result in a failure of the self-check, which will disable only the sensor which failed for that key cycle. Factors such as heat can affect whether the sensor will pass this check using the incorrect parameters.
Based on the results of the investigation, Toyota decided that the subject vehicles may not meet certain mandated requirements and issued a recall.
The Solution
All known owners of the subject vehicles will be notified by first class mail to return their vehicles to a Toyota dealer. The dealers will update the software of the Airbag ECU at no cost to owners. As the owner notification letters will be mailed out well within the active period of the Toyota New Vehicle Limited Warranty, all involved vehicles are assumed to be covered for this repair under Toyota’s Warranty.
The recall is expected to begin October 22, 2018. Owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-888-270-9371. Toyota’s number for this recall is J0X. Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153). The NHTSA number for this recall is 18V-685.
