Toyota Canada announces Voluntary Safety Campaigns on certain Camry, Venza, and Tacoma vehicles

Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI) announced that it will conduct 2 Voluntary Safety Campaigns on certain Toyota vehicles sold in Canada.

Toyota will conduct a Voluntary Safety Campaign on certain 2009 Camry and 2009 to certain 2011 Venza vehicles to replace the stop lamp switch. 2,740 Camry vehicles in the 2009 model year and 27,737 Venza vehicles from the 2009 through 2011 model years are covered by this campaign.

During factory installation of the contact-type stop lamp switch, silicone 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.

Toyota is currently obtaining the necessary replacement parts.  Once the replacement parts have been produced, Toyota will send a notification by first class mail requesting affected owners to make an appointment with an authorized Toyota dealership to replace the stop lamp switch at no charge.

Additionally, Toyota will conduct a Voluntary Safety Campaign on certain 2005 to early 2009 Tacoma vehicles to replace the spiral cable assembly. 17,178 Tacoma vehicles are covered by this campaign.

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.

Toyota is currently obtaining the necessary replacement parts.  Once the replacement parts become available, Toyota will notify all known owners.  In the interim, owners of the involved vehicles will be notified by first class mail in early April, 2012.  The interim notification letter will advise owners of this safety campaign, that they will receive a future notice when replacement parts are available, and what to do if they experience this condition.

Today’s announcement is for Canadian vehicles only.  No other Toyota or Lexus vehicles are involved.  Toyota is not aware of any accidents or injuries caused by these two conditions.

Customers who have any questions are asked to contact their local Toyota dealership, visit www.toyota.ca or contact Toyota Canada at 1-888-TOYOTA-8 (1-888-868-6828).