Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing: Tires › Temporary/Emergency Spare Tire
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing reported this defect to federal regulators on Nov 23, 2012 and put the number of vehicles at risk at 150,000. The repair is free for as long as the recall stands.
The defect
Toyota is recalling certain model year 2001 through 2004 Tacoma light trucks manufactured from August 28, 2000, through August 27, 2004, and originally sold, or currently registered, in the following cold climate states with high road salt usage: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. The spare tire in the subject vehicles is located underneath the rear of the vehicle and held by a spare tire carrier. A lift plate on the carrier is used to help raise, lower and retain the tire. During its manufacture, the lift plate may not have been sufficiently coated with anti-corrosion materials. If the plate is insufficiently coated and the vehicle is operated in cold climate regions where road salts are frequently used, road spray can reach the carrier assembly and corrode the lift plate.
The risk
Corrosion of the plate could cause it to break, which could result in detachment of the spare tire from the vehicle. Detachment of the spare tire could result in a road hazard which may increase the risk of a vehicle crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify owners, dealers will inspect the vehicle and replace the spare tire carrier lift plate as necessary, free of charge. The recall began in February 2013. Owners may contact their Toyota dealer or the Toyota Customer Experience Center at 1-800-331-4331.
4 model years covered
Newest first| Vehicle | Complaints | Recalls | Fires | Crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 Toyota Tacoma | 415 | 5 | 3 | 27 |
| 2003 Toyota Tacoma | 360 | 5 | 1 | 30 |
| 2002 Toyota Tacoma | 333 | 5 | 3 | 26 |
| 2001 Toyota Tacoma | 396 | 6 | 4 | 40 |
What this page is, and what to do next
A recall is not an opinion. It is a Part 573 report a manufacturer is required by federal law to file once it decides a defect poses an unreasonable risk to safety, and it commits them to repairing the vehicle at no cost to the owner. The three passages above are the manufacturer’s own wording as published by NHTSA.
This page describes the campaign. It cannot tell you whether one particular car has already been through the shop — that is tracked by VIN, and only the manufacturer knows it. Check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls or with a franchised dealer, quoting campaign number 12V542000.
Full record for the 2004 Toyota Tacoma → · Recalls carrying a do-not-drive advisory → · Where this data comes from →