Toyota is preparing a fix for vehicles already in the hands of customers that would not require the replacement of the accelerator assembly.
To say that Toyota's public relations troubles are accelerating would not be an exaggeration, but it might be a bad pun. While the manufacturer of the accelerator assembly, CTS Corp has a new assembly ready to go, it would be nearly impossible for CTS to both supply the new assembly to factories building cars and also send assemblies to dealers to replace the more that 2.3 million recalled vehicles.
What to do? Enter the humble shim. According to news reports, inserting a spacer, or shim, into the gap of the friction lever of the pedal will either a) reduce friction (according to an Automotive News article) or b) increases the tension in an internal spring (according to a Wall Street Journal article). Either way, the idea is to prevent the pedal from getting stuck, and as Martha Stewart would say, "That is a good thing."
Toyota has not officially settled on any one fix for existing vehicles and the shim idea may yet be scuttled. However, if this patch can pass durability tests and be easily implemented by dealers, who will be swamped with recalled vehicles, then Toyota will have a relatively low cost method of getting the job done.
Written by Michael Sheena
Huliq.com
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