Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing: Hybrid Propulsion System › Inverter
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing reported this defect to federal regulators on Sep 4, 2013 and put the number of vehicles at risk at 133,081. The repair is free for as long as the recall stands.
The defect
Toyota is recalling certain model year 2006-2010 Highlander hybrid vehicles manufactured February 16, 2005, through July 29, 2010; and model year 2006-2008 Lexus RX400h vehicles manufactured February 23, 2005, through December 2, 2008. The Intelligent Power Module (IPM) inside the inverter module may contain transistors that have higher operating temperatures than the solder can support and the transistors may be heat damaged by the solder. If this occurs, various warning lamps, including the malfunction indicator lamp, slip indicator light, brake system warning light, and master warning light, will be illuminated on the instrument panel.
The risk
The vehicle may enter a fail-safe/limp-home mode that limits the drivability of the vehicle. It is possible that the hybrid system will shut down while the vehicle is being driven, causing the vehicle to stall unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will replace the IPM free of charge. Owners may contact Toyota at 1-800-331-4331. Vehicles that had their IPM replaced under recall 11V-342 are not affected by this campaign.
8 model years covered
Newest first| Vehicle | Complaints | Recalls | Fires | Crashes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 22 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 2009 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 40 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 2008 Lexus RX Hybrid | 57 | 1 | 0 | 18 |
| 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 197 | 8 | 4 | 6 |
| 2007 Lexus RX Hybrid | 59 | 3 | 0 | 10 |
| 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 110 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| 2006 Lexus RX Hybrid | 154 | 5 | 0 | 15 |
| 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 370 | 6 | 7 | 34 |
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 13V396000.
Full record for the 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid → · Recalls carrying a do-not-drive advisory → · Where this data comes from →