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Toyota is recalling 790,000 Tacoma pickup trucks from the 2005-11 model years worldwide, including about 690,000 in the United States, because a rear suspension part could break and possibly puncture the gas tank or damage a brake line, the automaker said Monday.
On vehicles with the defect, corrosion could weaken a leaf spring, allowing it to break. “The broken leaf could move out of position and contact surrounding components, including the fuel tank,” the automaker said in a news release.
The action covers 4-wheel drive and Pre-Runner versions of the Tacoma. Amanda Rice, a Toyota spokeswoman, wrote in an email that the company was unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect. But some owners told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that they had had close calls.
“A broken leaf spring cut my brake line, and my brakes stopped working withmy 8-year-old child in the truck,” one Tacoma owner wrote to the safety agency in June. “I had already replaced a leaf spring on the other side. This could have caused a very serious accident. Luckily, the brakes still had some fluid in them.”
The agency has received at least two dozen complaints from owners, some going back to 2011.
“This is a common problem that is not being addressed by Toyota,” one owner complained in a May 2013 letter to the safety agency.
Toyota received its first report of a problem in 2009, Ms. Rice said. But, she noted, “a single initial report cannot identify a trend and rarely prompts a recall. When we see what might be a trend, we monitor and investigate the issue, and when we believe there is a safety-related defect, we begin a recall.”
USA TODAY Toyota Recalls
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