Toyota's Recall Woes Continue

: Image by conhunter via Flickr

We spoke some on Saturday about the Toyota recall with regards to brake pedal problems. There had been rumors about an additional problem with their Prius models. This happened yesterday and overnight as they recalled about 400k 2010 Prius hybrids. The problem appears to be related to the braking system. There are two modes in the braking system (specifically the anti lock braking). One recovers energy and charges the battery at the same time, and the other is the ‘normal’ hydraulic braking system. What is supposed to happen is that the energy recovery one is the default for driving around town and the hydraulics kick in automatically when needed. The problem seems to be there is a ‘burp’ in the changeover from one system to the other… which unfortunately causes some no brake moments. This seems to occur more frequently when you hit a bump in the road.

From reports that we’ve read the ‘fix’ should take about 45 minutes. The fix is a software update to the cars computer, tweaking how the braking works. The best way to get information is to call your dealer for details and monitor Toyota’s site for further details.

Here’s a recent press release with more details - http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota-2010-prius-abs-recall-153614.aspx