Toyota Delivers Temporary Floormat Fix

Toyota has told its dealers they should use a heavy-duty self-locking plastic tie — like a zip tie — to make sure owners’ floormats are kept in place while the company works on a permanent solution to the problem that sparked last week’s recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

While a zip tie doesn’t sound like a the sturdiest piece of equipment in this situation, Toyota spokesman Brian Lyons says the ones used for this application can hold up to 50 pounds and are attached to the driver’s seat frame. It allows the mats to be placed on the seat when they need to be moved or cleaned.

Lyons reiterated this move is a temporary one and is not the fix mandated by the recall. He says Toyota is working toward adding a “component” change to the vehicles, which would likely include advanced braking software that we detailed this morning as well as mechanical changes. He said he did not expect the floormats to be altered.

Comments

Can Toyota owners bring their cars to a dealer to ensure that this high-tech temporary fix is properly installed? And if they do, can the dealer get paid for a warranty claim?

Floor mats + zip ties + uncontrolled acceleration = zip tie click of death?

It's a nice touch that they are matching the seat piping with the Zip-tie color. Do they come in other colors?

I really hope the owners that had holes punched in their floor mats for this "fix" are going to get a new set for free when the permanent change comes into play.

All in all I'm just amazed at this cluster and all the press it's generating.

I’m really surprised by the fix Toyota has come with for these rugs. It’s almost laughable. Come on Toyota give us a better fix than that. I got zip ties,duct tape and, bailing wire to hold down my rug but I’d rather a better more professional fix than that. How about better designed replacement gromets.

why don't the owners just take out the driver's floor mat until the fix comes? They can put some plastic or a paper bag over the carpet if it is going to be a big deal.

Broq

Broq
that's what the original bulletin said to do. This is more for new car deliveries where floormats are included, like all Lexus models which come with standard mats. They have to attach them rather than leave them in the trunk leading to potential improper installation by owner. theoretically.

Thankfully Toyota didnt choose their other option...running lag screws thru the carpet and out thru the floorboard...

Those zip ties come in black as well. Wow ... Toyota sucks!

There is a very simple fix to this. You can never 100% prevent mats or other objects from jamming the accelerator pedal, but there should be a safety override when the brake pedal is depressed.

When the brake pedal is depressed the engine management system should return the engine speed back to idle. This would have prevented the recent fatal accident in the ES350.

All the switches and hardware are in place and all this requires is perhaps an additional input to the ECM and a software update.
While Toyota is about it, how about turning on the headlights automatically when the wipers are on?

I don't know why these 2 safety features haven't already been incorporated in modern cars.

For all the technology that goes into cars, it's amazing how something so simple can create such a fuss.

Glad to see that Toyota is finally getting bad press, for years they have been having recalls of their main vehicles with no announcement by the press or maybe just a little sentence scrolled at the bottom of the news channel when running other stories.

First of all: I do not believe that the floor mat caused the accident that killed the 4 people. The entire story pretty unbelievable from the start. The fact that it could make me go over 100 MPH and make by brakes go out at the same time is amazing to say the least.

I'd love to know how the reenactors say it supposedly happened. I couldn't force a floor mat to hold my accelerator pedal to the floor if I tried. How could it accidently happen while I was driving down the road.

To think that this could happen more than once if even more unbelievable.

JimC

Pretty pathetic Toyota....educated people know that this is a pathetic cover up of unintended acceleration issues like the fabled audi 5000 from the 80's that crippled audi for years. Educated people, including older mechanics speak of toyota secretly fixing customers vehicles without their knowledge for years. The actual truth is that toyota's supposed wonderful quality record was really built on a corporate foundation of secrecy, deception, and deceit, subsequently leading to deaths. Fortunately, current legislation in N. America today, puts all car companies on an even playing field regarding the handling of defects, defect data and protocol. It certainly isn't ironic to me that Toyota is now the most recalled brand since 2006. They've had more serious safety defects by far than any other car company. a decade of dangerous, steering/suspension, defects through nearly the entire line in the 80's/90's, to name but a few. google sacramento corrolla accident death lawsuit(late model corrolla low speed accident). I could go on and on, suffice to say that most of the sheeple are blissfully unaware of any problems, and buy into the Toyota quality myth because some gen xer in the media, who got free field trips to the toyota plant in Japan, said it's the best. The sheeple strapped their babies in the back seats of camrys for decades not knowing the camry performed poorly in IIHS rear crash tests. The sheeple are unaware that NOBODY spends less per vehicle unit man'f. than Toyota. I could write pages on toyota defects and examples of their engineering shortcomings based on bean counting. The sheeple love each new toyota model yet don't realize it's essentially the same 15yr old car underneath. The sheeple don't realize that 60% of all toyotas/lexus' are just ancient old reskinned camrys underneath. Yes sheeple this is really the truth and toyota doesnt want you to know about it.
The sheeple don't know that hybrids are worse for the enviroment than regular cars

......but wait, Toyota lost over 8 billion in the first quarter of 09 and are now behind Ford in sales in North america. Ford has surpassed both Toyota and Honda in initial defect scores......apparently some of the sheeple are waking up. Even the pathetic junk scienced faulty data based Consumer reports no longer recommends the camry or the accord due to inital defect issues.

Wake up sheeple!

Gee Darla, thanks for exposing the global toyota conspiracy. I didn't know that hybrids were a plot to ruin the earth and are part of Toyota's evil plan that the public is just now catching on to. But please try to explain why your beloved Ford is building Hybrids and is borrowing Toyota tech to do it, moron.

My husband and I had a frightening experience in our 2008 Prius this past Friday evening with uncontrolled acceleration when using the cruise control. By the time my husband was able to reach a place to pull off the highway the front brakes were on fire from trying to brake and avoid an accident. Fortunately, my husband was able to extinguish the flames before the whole car caught fire. Of course, the Toyota dealership where we had the car towed blamed the floor mat and said they found no problem with the vehicle. We know the floor mat was NOT the problem nor was "driver error". Something happened to that car electronically that sent it into uncontrollable acceleration and nearly caused an accident. Is anyone investigating this issue beyond accepting the "floor mat" theory? Obviously Toyota doesn't want to admit to any other problem.

I am a technician at an independent repair shop,and former Toyota Certified Expert tech. I found the problem to be in the CANbus system while diagnosing this issue on a 2006 Tacoma. CANbus began in use on the 2004 Pruis. It's main use is in the Drive-by-wire throttle system. There is not a mechanical cable to the throttle body. When a braking command is sent to the PCM/ECU the throttle motor is supposed to return to idle like a person in a previous comment mentioned. A person cannot 'power-brake'. The problem lies within a CANbus component or software. I wouldn't be surprised to see the tech at the dealership plug in a computer to the vehicle while replacing the floormats to reflash software during the campaign/recall.
The correct recall would probably bankrupt Toyota. I'm sure they know whats really going on if I can figure it or or at least put 2 and 2 together.

Anybody who has one of these vehicle's should try to step on the brakes and at the same time the gas pedal, on a CANbus Toyota drive-by-wire.

Robert,
Thanks for posting. I'm not sure if you read all of our coverage but using both pedals is definitely NOT ADVISED by Toyota in these situations. in fact they know it is not a floormat fix, as we note in the THIRD PARAGRAPH above.

Toyota is trying to figure out the proper mechanical fix before implementing it. However, it sounds like there will be a component and software fix down the line and until then, just don't use the floormats.

totally wrong because this has happened on car with no floor mats at all so who is toyota trying to fool...This is a computer link with the fuel injestion and throddle system,,,,,,,,thats the real problem...