Idenifying the CTS Gas Pedal of the Toyota Recall
 

If you own a Toyota, you may want to investigate whether your vehicle has
the CTS-built gas pedal that is the cause for the concern that is being widely
covered in the media right now. If so, here is some info that I hope will be
of help.

Affected Toyota vehicles:
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• 2009-2010 RAV4
• 2007-2010 Camry
• 2008-2010 Sequoia
• 2009-2010 Corolla
• 2005-2010 Tacoma
• 2008-2010 Highlander
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2009-2010 Matrix
• 2009-2010 Venza

Unaffected vehicles:
• Sienna
• Solara
• Yaris
• 4Runner
• FJ Cruiser
• Land Cruiser
• 2004-2009 Prius -- but still subject to the Floor Mat recall
• 2010 Prius

Here is some hard data, photographs and discussion, on the CTS gas
pedals that have been identified as the probable source of the concern.

http://tuneyfish.com/blog/cts-pedal-denso.jpg

From this article at tuneyfish.com which has more detail on telling the
difference between the affected CTS pedals and the unaffected Denso
pedal also used by Toyota.

Here is a statement from the CTS corporation on the matter.

And some details on how the gas pedals are designed.

Many thanks to the good folks at tuneyfish.com for this info.

(I also posted this at PRIUSchat and CleanMPG. I'm hoping that I haven't
broken a forum rule or etiquette by posting here as well.)

TBH - If Toyota is having these problems with this company over such a wide range of MY and vehicle models, why bother even working with them to fix the problem and install new pedal assemblies that (based on track record) will likely fail again?

If it were my business, I'd more likely be taking this company for a ride to pay the bill for installation of a non-fail Denso unit in every recalled vehicle.

As far as I'm concerned, CTS has sullied their company image with unreliability on this scale, and shouldn't be getting off with "we'll redesign the parts". Nah, not even close, pal.

And there's more:

First some additional analysis or the pedals themselves from
The Truth About Cars:

[I]"On initial observation, it appears that the CTS may be perceived as
being the more solidly engineered/built unit, in that the pedal pivots
on a traditional and solid steel axle whose bearings are brass or
bronze sleeves. The Denso’s whole pivot and bearing surfaces are
relatively flimsy-feeling plastic. But that can be deceptive, and we’re
not qualified to judge properly if it is indeed inferior or superior. But
according to our sources, the Denso unit will likely be recalled too. So
the question that goes beyond the analysis of these e-pedals is this:
are these units really the full source of the problem, or are they scape
goats for an electronics and/or software glitch? Pictures and tear down
examination and analysis follows..." in the full article.

And there are other vehicle manufacturer and Canadian connections:

[I]"Maker of Toyota gas pedal ramping up production to meet replacement
demand
By Kristine Owram (CP) – 3 days ago

"TORONTO — The fact that a faulty accelerator implicated in a massive
recall of Toyota vehicles was manufactured in Canada will have a
negligible impact on the Canadian auto parts industry, says the head
of an association representing suppliers..."

"CTS also makes pedals for Honda Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan
Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co., but the company said pedals made for
those manufacturers don't have the same design. Still, Ford on Thursday
halted production of some full-sized commercial vehicles in China because
they contain CTS gas pedals..."

Full Canadian Press article here.

Hm. After reading that, it looks as though Toyota went to a bunch of trouble to redesign a piece of crap into a polished piece of crap with a different type of sensor.

What's so bad about using a standard pot-switch on the accelerator pedal, and forcing the ECU's programming to match that with the TB?

I just don't understand why car makers feel like things need to be complicated to work.

Basically, all the US built Toyotas are being recalled while all the ones built in Japan are safe.

...tongue-in-cheek summary: buy JAPANESE (made) cars.

...and, yes, my Vibe is affected by this whole mess!

Lets just not jump the gun until all the dust has settled. (gee that's a lot of idioms for such a short sentence!)

Well, that's good to know. Might be time to just re-connect a throttle cable to the damn TB?

Fly-by-wire was never high on my list of "good" ideas, honestly.

A final installment:

The possible negative effects on consumers and investors not only
stretches from North America to Asia, but to Europe as well. There are
possible further recalls in France, and subsidiary effects extending to
the Czech Republic. At this point it is safe to say that this is as much
or more an issue for the CTS Corporation as it is for Toyota.

In France, Reuters reports that Renault has this to say:

"PARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Renault does not share common parts
with Toyota, the world no. 1 automaker fighting to salvage its
reputation after a massive safety recall, a spokeswoman for the
French carmaker said on Monday.

"'Renault vehicles use neither the same pedals, nor the same parts as
those of Toyota,' the spokeswoman said in a statement."

However, Peugeot and Citroen may not be so lucky:

"Peugeot and Citroen have models that are potentially the same car
as the Toyota Aygo which is among eight of the brand’s models being
recalled over potentially faulty accelerator pedals.

"The Aygo, 107 and C1 models have been developed by the French and
Japanese car firms and are built on the same production line at a plant
in the Czech Republic as part of a joint venture.

"A total of 1.8 million Toyotas in Europe are expected to be involved in
one of the largest recalls in recent years.

"However, while the Aygo uses an electronically-controlled accelerator
pedal that is at the centre of the recall issue, the French brands only
used this pedal in models fitted with stability control systems (ESP) or
automatic gearboxes."

Full story in the Irish Times

This recall is spreading like the black plague did in Europe. Soon its going to be easier to say which countires are unaffected. It is fer certain the pedals fault. Now some Toyota's ARENT moving at all. Yep. Pedal. The pedal manufacturer has officially soiled Toyota's reputation. Consumer Reports has actually removed its reccomendation of the 8 Toyota's affected.

The 2009/2010 Vibe is indeed also affected. Makes me wonder about the older Toyota's, like 2nd gen Prius, previous Corolla, current/previous Camry, etc... arent affected.