On Heels Of A Recall, Toyota Stops Sales Of Lexus LS 460 And LS 600h

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Posted on 25th May 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Here’s another chapter in what’s been a “Perfect Storm” of a year for Toyota.  

Monday the automaker halted the sales of 2009-2010 Lexus LS 460 and LS 600h sedans, which have an electrical glitch that can make their steering wheels go out of alignment. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lexus-recall-20100525,0,6644368.story

 The move came just days after Toyota recalled 11,500 of those same vehicles. Friday’s recall involved roughly 4,000 of the LS 460 and LS 600h cars in the United States.    

http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/lexus/toyota-announces-voluntary-recall-159059.aspx

In a press release Friday, Toyota said the recall was related to the vehicles’ Variable Gear Ratio Steering (VGRS) and the need “to address a temporary steering wheel off-center condition that may develop under a specific driving maneuver.”

According to Toyota, the problem is that “the VGRS system may exhibit a temporary steering wheel off-center condition after driving away quickly from a very tight turn where the steering was at full lock position. The steering wheel off-center position will automatically be corrected in approximately five seconds by the VGRS system as the vehicle is driven.  The driver may notice the system auto correcting as the steering wheel slowly moves to the center position while driving straight during the VGRS correction.”

What that all means, according to The Los Angeles Times, is that the Lexus’s steering wheel could “get stuck in a turned orientation even though the car is going straight.” But even in that condition, the steering wheel could still be used to steer the car, a Toyota spokesman told The Times.

Lexus recently received one customer report in the United States regarding the problem, with no accidents or injuries reported, Toyota said. 

The recalled vehicle owners will have to bring their cars to their dealers to have their steering control computers replaced with a newly designed one at no charge, according to Toyota.  The computer replacement is expected to take less than one hour.

But there’s one small problem: Toyota hasn’t come up with a fix for the Lexus problem yet, according to The Lost Angeles Times. It expects to have a remedy by late June.

Attorney Gordon Johnson
Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
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