The defect
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain 2018-2019 Toyota Tundra and Sequoia vehicles and 2019 Toyota Avalon and Avalon Hybrid vehicles. The air bag electronic control unit (ECU) may erroneously detect a fault during the vehicle start-up self check. If this occurs, the ECU may not deploy the airbags as intended, in the event of a crash. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection," and 214, "Side Impact Protection."
The risk
If the air bags do not deploy as intended, it can increase the risk of injury in a crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will update the software for the air bag ECU, free of charge. The recall began October 26, 2018. Owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-888-270-9371. Toyota's number for this recall is J0X. Note: 18V-122 was superseded by this recall. The software remedy also includes the updates to the software for 18V-122.
NHTSA's own wording · initiated by MFR
Vehicles covered
| Model | Model years |
|---|---|
| Toyota Avalon | 2019 |
| Toyota Avalon Hybrid | 2019 |
| Toyota Sequoia | 2018, 2019 |
| Toyota Tundra | 2018, 2019 |
Components: AIR BAGS | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:SOFTWARE
Model years in this recall
NHTSA complaints and the number of recall campaigns for each model year this recall covers.
| Model | Year | Complaints | Recalls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota Avalon | 2019 | 71 | 4 |
| Toyota Avalon Hybrid | 2019 | 1 | 3 |
| Toyota Sequoia | 2018 | 20 | 4 |
| Toyota Sequoia | 2019 | 7 | 5 |
| Toyota Tundra | 2018 | 100 | 8 |
| Toyota Tundra | 2019 | 74 | 9 |
Other electrical system recalls in 2018
105 of the 912 recall campaigns reported to NHTSA in 2018 concerned the electrical system; Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing filed 245 campaigns in all.
| 18V946000 31 Dec 2018 | Arcimoto Inc |
| 18V933000 27 Dec 2018 | Forest River, Inc. |
| 18V930000 21 Dec 2018 | Daimler Trucks North America LLC |
| 18V929000 21 Dec 2018 | Daimler Trucks North America LLC |
| 18V917000 20 Dec 2018 | Chrysler (FCA US LLC) |
| 18V921000 20 Dec 2018 | Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) |
| 18V895000 19 Dec 2018 | Dennis Eagle Inc. |
| 18V909000 19 Dec 2018 | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
NHTSA recalls (public domain) · all recalls of 2018