Toyota on Friday has said that it is recalling about 600,000 Sienna minivans to check for rust in the cable holding the spare tyre. This is in addition to the 6 million vehicles that the car maker has already recalled.
The automaker has also said that so far they do not have a solution to the problem which, it seems, has only been noticed in 20 cold weather states including Michigan which use road salt in winter. Car owners in other states can check their cars for any problems.
The recall has been done for two-wheel drive Sienna models manufactured between 1998 and 2010. The Japanese car giant also said in a worse case scenario the cable could snap causing the spare tyre to fall on the road behind the car. However, they did not specify if they had so far received any reports of crashes or injuries linked to the problem.
The owners would be requested to bring their cars to the dealers for an inspection while the car maker would get a resolution to the problem after which the owners would be informed again.
Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America, said the automaker was "working diligently to develop a remedy as soon as possible."
This recall of cars is an addition to the growing list of recalls that the Japanese car maker has been doing since January. The total volume of cars so far recalled for problems in the accelerator would be 2.3 million in addition to the recall of the 2010 prius hybrid for its problem in the brake software.
Other states where cars have been recalled include Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
