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SAN DIEGO—
In an effort to repair it's shattered image, Toyota is gearing up to fix the accelerator pedals on millions of cars. The auto company has had to recall millions of cars for various "fixes"."There are two separate campaigns," said Mossy Toyota's Dale Snow. "We have the floormat campaign called the 90L, which we'll be performing in the very near future. In days in fact we'll be implementing that campaign. But the one that is getting the most visibility right now is the sticky pedal. It is called an A0A campaign."
On Wednesday, Mossy Toyota in Pacific Beach received their first shipment of steel reinforced plates. The piece, no bigger than a penny, will be placed behind the accelerator. Snow said the piece will eliminate excess friction that in rare instances causes the pedal to stick.
Not every Toyota is being recalled for the issue. Both Toyota's Snow and Randy Begin of Mission Hills Automotive recommend people check their car's registration to find out if there vehicle is part of the pedal recall.
"The first digit tells you the country of origin, where that car was made," said Begin. "If it has a "J", that car was made in Japan."
Begin said Japanese made Toyota's are safe because they have Denso pedals. But cars starting with numbers, especially the number four, are a different story. The pedal was made by a company in the midwest.
"Now if you have a four, your car was made in America," he said. "You are definitely part of the recall. You need to go to Toyota. No question at all."
That pedal was made by CTS.
"If it is manufacted by CTS which is the company out of Indiana," said Snow. "Those will need to be modified."
Worried about overwhelming dealerships, Toyota is asking customers to wait until they get a recall letter from them, before calling for an appointment to fix the problem. But if you feel like your pedal is having issues, Snow said customers can call anyway.
"If you are experiencing a problem with the accelerator pedal now and you feel that it is sluggish or you are uncomfortable with that pedal, contact us immediately," he said.
