Toyota Recalls More Than 21,000 Camry V6 in Australia
Toyota Motor Corporation announced over the weekend that it is recalling about 550,000 cars from the market due to steering issues. In Australia, affected by the manufacturer recall are 21,792 Camry V6 vehicles made in Toyota's plant in Altona, Australia.
Besides the Camry, Toyota is also recalling Avalon and Kluger models made from June 2004 to March 2005.
The recall was made after the Japanese car maker discovered not enough adhesive around the steering wheel which caused the driver's power steering to fail, although there are no reports of injuries or accidents over the problem. There was insufficient adhesive between the inner and outer rings of the crankshaft pulley during the manufacture.
It led to the misalignment of the outer ring and caused an abnormal noise and the charging system warning light to illuminate.
Toyota Australia will start contacting affected Toyota owners in the country by mail at their last known address in December 2010 and will advise them to seek an appointment with their preferred Toyota dealer which would fix the problem at no cost to the car owner.
The bulk of the vehicle recalls are in the U.S. at 420,000 units. Another 3,000 will be recalled in New Zealand and 36,000 in Japan for the same defect.
Toyota, besides being affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, recalled almost 3 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2011. The firm advised car owners not to wait for the notification in January 2012 if they hear noise coming out of the engine compartment but to instead consult the nearest Lexus or Toyota dealers.
Toyota has been investigating the steering wheel problem since 2007.