Toyota Announces Voluntary Safety Recall Of Certain 2001 To 2004 Model Year Tacoma Vehicles

Toyota Motor Sales will conduct a safety recall involving approximately 150,000 Tacoma vehicles originally sold or currently registered in twenty cold climate states and the District of Columbia to inspect, and in some cases, replace the spare tire carrier assembly.

In these vehicles, the spare tire is stored underneath the rear bed and suspended by a spare tire carrier on a metal lift plate. During manufacture, the spare tire carrier lift plate may not have been sufficiently coated with phosphate. The lack of phosphate coating combined with prolonged exposure to high road salt use and other environmental factors may contribute to the development of more than normal corrosion of the lift plate on some vehicles. Over time and in limited cases, corrosion of the lift plate could cause it to break and result in detachment of the spare tire from the vehicle.

In addition to the District of Columbia, the twenty cold climate states are: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Owners of vehicles covered by this safety recall will receive an owner notification letter via first class mail starting in December 2012. Any authorized Toyota dealer will perform this recall at no charge to the vehicle owner. Detailed information is available to customers at www.toyota.com/recall and the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.

NAFA Fleet Management Association
125 Village Blvd., Suite 200
Princeton, NJ 08540

Telephone: 609.720.0882 Fax: 609.452.8004