Safety Recall Rear Doors

Apparently Toyota replicated the problem with a ‘hand held pressure washer’. I guess pressure washers are everywhere when we drive.

 

The issue is that thermal expansion/contraction causes a separation of the door handle electronics and/or housing from the sealant being used as waterproofing, and so over time water can intrude and damage the electronics. This can (and has, in one case) caused the switch to start malfunctioning. It's not a case of simply spraying the door with a high pressure jet of water. Also note that water intrusion into the switch may or may not cause an immediate short circuit; it may require some time for damage to occur or for repeated intrusions to happen. But eventually the switch may start opening the door at random, and not in an immediate response to being directly sprayed. In their words:

In this condition, if a large amount of water splashes on the switch (for example, at a car wash), the water could enter the switch and cause a short circuit.​

So, imagine your car sits outside during the day and thus the passenger doors experience frequent temperature swings, and you use an automatic car wash every couple weeks. Even Toyota isn't estimating what the chances of this happening are, but these are the two key ingredients that they have shown under their own testing to be able to cause a failure.

 

This is the company involved. They make many parts for Toyotas, including the avatar of this board (start–stop switch).

Human-interface systems and controls ｜ TOKAI RIKA CO., LTD.

 

My Prius is expected in July so I visited my dealer today to check if this was still the case. He went off to his office and came back a few minutes later. According to his enquiries my car is in production and is still due to be delivered in July. If Toyota have stopped production of the Prius, new door switches won’t be available until the third quarter of the year, cars in dealers can’t be sold until repaired, how on earth will I have the car in July especially if you take into account that it takes 8 to 10 weeks to ship it from Japan to the UK?

He gave the impression that he knew nothing about the rear door switch issue. That I find hard to believe.

Can anyone suggest when I might take delivery of my Prius?

 

Sounds like dealer might be setting you up for disappointment unless Toyota has already resolved the issue for the cars currently on the assembly line. I thought most recent notification stated production had stopped.

 

The dealer could be telling you what they think you want to hear. They don't want to lose you as a future customer.

 

The recall is expected Q3; that includes delivery time and possibly the complete recall production run. Resumption of delivery of switches for the factory will be earlier.

And delivery time to the UK is closer to 8 weeks than 10, factory to dealer. July seems possible, if your car is near the head of the queue.

 

Due to the recall my car ( already in Europe ) delivery date was postponed to middle of June. But in the end its just a date like all the delivery dates before - they can always change them as they like. I assume thats more like a provisional best guess for when they have a transport slot booked. At the end only Toyota Japan knows whats going on if ever.

 

My experience is that the sales people are not very well informed. When I took delivery of my car, the salesman was supposed to take me through an introduction to the technology. I knew more than he did. He took a half hour to go through connecting my phone to the car, but beyond that was less than helpful. You might check with your service department. Our service manager is quite knowledgeable. Of course i didn't buy the car from our local dealer ("convenience fee" issues), so that may not be applicable to your situation. You have my sympathy. After waiting all this time, it is disheartening to think that there may be further delay.

They haven't released the info about the cars that have not been produced, though. It may be that they will have the alteration in place much sooner for the build lines than for the repairs in other countries. I can't imagine that they will simply stop building cars until they fix all the ones already out here (especially since there is such an easy work around with the auto-locks).

 

Like you I find that most salesmen lack knowledge about the product they are trying to sell. Having looked at dozens of videos on YouTube about the Prius Prime I suspect I will be showing the salesman how most things work. Incidentally Mark Ceeee on YT is very informative.

I well remember when many years ago a bought a new New Holland Ford tractor. It had a four cylinder engine but the salesman insisted that every model in that range had a three cylinder engine. We almost had an argument over it until he looked in the brochure (remember them) and had to apologise.

 

So the salesman says “let me check “, and goes back to his office, takes a sip of coffee, and comes back with what I want to hear.

 

The salesman I ordered my Prius from promised to give me an update on its delivery and whether I am eligible for a free Toyota Homecharge (offered one month after I ordered my car).

Have I heard back from him? No! Ei! Non! Nee! Nein! Nej! Nie!

I am not impressed. I ordered and paid a deposit subject to a test drive by the end of June. I think there is good chance that I will be requesting a refund.

 

Sales people just want to sell vehicles and make money. Don't believe anything that they tell you without verifying it. There is lots of good information on this site and the internet in general. Do your own research. Toyota mechanics and service managers are more knowledgeable than most sales people. I have found that mechanics and service managers have been willing to answer questions even though I didn't purchase the vehicle at their dealership.

 

Regarding the rear door switch recall why don’t Toyota do a quick and easy software update? As soon as you go from Park to Drive the rear doors can be made to always automatically lock. That way the rear doors will never open when on the move. Replacement of the offending switches can then be done at a later date.

 

Who knows what they will do for the affected cars standing around... but I guess even a software update takes time. In any case, the longer it takes the worse it is for the dealerships and/or Toyota. I wonder eg if dealerships get compensation from Toyota but it probably depends a lot on the legislation and the contracts they have.

Apparently dealers not caring or knowing too much seems to be the same everywhere. They did not even know about the recall the first time I called.
In my case I took the needed steps to motivate the dealership as they cannot fulfill the contract they signed with me. That very likely comes down to a loaner or recission of the contract.

 

That's the default behavior for gen 3 and newer models in the US and Canada. The problem is that the child safety locks in the gen 5 are rendered useless if the door switches malfunction because they will be operating the outside handle and so there's nothing to prevent the door from opening if a back seat passenger unlocks a door from the inside by accident or on purpose.

 

Good point. If someone does unlock the doors that would be an issue. But I don't think you can unlock the doors while the car is moving if the car has locked them for you once you hit a certain speed.

 

Depends on whether the car regularly check that the doors are locked, or just hits the lock 'button' once the condition is met(shift into D, reach 5mph, etc.). I suspect it is the latter.

 

I ordered a Prime XSE Premium in January and it's either on a ship or on the way to the dealer (Wisconsin). I read all the posts in this thread and saw nothing updating the "quarter 3" recall fix date shown on the internet last month. Anyone heard of updates? If nothing changes, my car will be sitting on the lot for 2+ months. Thanks, TomM

 

I can check later but I have been in cars that just disable the unlock button while moving and they trigger he lock any time you exceed X km/h or mph.

My prime locks the doors as soon as I go past a certain lower speed.