The defect
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain model year 2006-2011 Toyota RAV4 vehicles manufactured October 31, 2005, to September 7, 2010, and 2010 Lexus HS250h vehicles manufactured July 6, 2009, to August 26, 2010. The affected vehicles have rear suspension arms (rear tie rods) with adjusting lock nuts that may have been improperly tightened after servicing. As a result of being loose, the arm may have thread damage and may rust, possibly leading to the failure of the arm and an abrupt change in the vehicle's alignment.
The risk
Failure of the rear tie rod could cause a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify owners and dealers will replace both rear suspension arms and encapsulate the locknuts, free of charge. The recall began on September 30, 2016. Owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331. Toyota's numbers for this recall are G0V for Toyota vehicles and GLK for Lexus vehicles. Note: This recall supersedes recall 13V-383, in which some vehicles were only inspected, sealed, and did not have both arms replaced. The affected vehicles were previously recalled under 13V-383, but did not have both rear suspension arms replaced at that time. Those vehicles need to have both arms replaced as part of this recall remedy.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| Lexus HS 250 Hybrid | 2010 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 |
Components: SUSPENSION:REAR
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lexus HS 250 Hybrid | 2010 | 76 | 4 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2006 | 705 | 11 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2007 | 1,004 | 14 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2008 | 575 | 14 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2009 | 327 | 15 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2010 | 400 | 14 |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2011 | 287 | 11 |
Other suspension recalls in 2016
62 of the 919 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2016 concerned the suspension; Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing filed 245 campaigns in all.
| 16V948000 30 Dec 2016 | BMW of North America, LLC |
| 16V944000 29 Dec 2016 | Timberland INC DBA Glacier |
| 16V929000 23 Dec 2016 | Mack Trucks, Inc. |
| 16V927000 22 Dec 2016 | Volvo Trucks North America |
| 16V889000 9 Dec 2016 | Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC |
| 16V885000 9 Dec 2016 | Porsche Cars North America, Inc. |
| 16V845000 22 Nov 2016 | E-One Incorporated |
| 16V806000 7 Nov 2016 | Terex Advance Mixer, Inc. |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2016