Toyota Examines Repaired Cars, Rebuts Professor's Testing

Earlier this week, a handful of complaints — the number is now up to around 60 — were filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about cars already repaired under the two major Toyota recalls. This brought up a new slew of questions regarding the company’s fixes and its throttle control system.

Toyota announced Thursday that it followed up with a number of the cars it could track down from the verified complaints and thoroughly tested them. The company’s findings have been forwarded to NHTSA for review, but no word has been released yet from the government. Toyota said it found no defects with the repairs or the electronic throttle control.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Toyota’s outside research firm Exponent had re-created the unintended acceleration test conducted by David Gilbert, the professor from Southern Illinois University who testified in front of Congress last week. It said the test had the same effect on other manufacturers’ vehicles and that it had to cut into two separate insulated wires. Exponent tested five vehicles, including a Honda Accord and BMW 325i.

It was reported that Gilbert may meet with the research group to review the tests. It was not reported if the other vehicles did not return an error code, like the Toyota that Gilbert had tested.

Gawker.com is also reporting that ABC News confirmed to them that footage in a news report showing Gilbert’s test-car being driven by reporter Brian Ross was altered. Footage of the tachometer revving while driven was replaced by a shot of it revving while parked, because the driving shot was too blurry. ABC says this doesn’t change the fact that a similar acceleration occurred, but Gawker says it was done to “make it look scarier.”

Comments

Whatever... Point is ECU does not record anything.

No evidence remain.
"No evidence remain" is evidence.

So, We can't believe toyota's claim "There is no evidence.
Because ECU originally does not record such thing.

If ABC news was wrong, however,It does not mean everything of Toyota scandal was fake.

1. Toyota's Unintended Acceleration problem exist cleary.
2. Toyota still denying their own fault.

What a lot of poor reporting. Nice job taking snippets and pieces and putting together the parts that you want readers to see.

JOKE JOKE JOKE

I don't believe any of this as ABC News does not employ any journalists to begin with. That's been evident for decades.

Has nothing to do with the Libs...Matter of fact I can't stand the Libs myself but it has to do with Toyota lying thru its teeth...Which I am certain Toyota will not have any left after the American People have their say in the matter. Good luck selling those cheap plastic cookie cutters....I am sure you will need it. Sorry Toyota can't buy off the truth this time.

Where's the proof Toyota is lying? There is none but there is more than ample proof that you are an idiot. Ask your mother as she knows all too well.

^Where's the proof Toyota is lying?

Presented confidentially in July 2009, Toyota North America president of operations, Yoshimi Inaba, announced “wins for Toyota” after achieving “favourable safety outcomes” and “secured safety rule-making favourable to Toyota”.

Toyota explained it “negotiated an equipment recall” for the 2007 Toyota Camry and Lexus ES 350, recalling 55,000 floor mats rather than fixing the defective accelerator pedals, saving US$100 million.

Toyota also confirmed it saved millions by delaying federal safety rules on numerous models and avoided an investigation into the 1995 to 2004 Tacoma pickup, which had undercarriage rust issues.
http://www.caradvice.com.au/57906/toyota-saved-us100-million-by-limiting-recalls/

"Toyota is a very secretive corporation," former ToMoCo employee, said in an interview. "It doesn't believe anybody outside the corporation deserves to know what is going on inside, even if it kills somebody."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-lawyer3-2010feb03,0,7374631.story

Report: After NHTSA investigator hired by Toyota, serious unintended acceleration cases ignored
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/05/report-after-nhtsa-investigator-hired-by-toyota-serious-uninte/

In Japan there is a proverb, "If it stinks, put a lid on it."
"One glowing exception to this parsimonious record is the saga involving pharmaceutical companies that kept selling tainted blood products to hemophiliacs that left many of them infected with HIV in the 1980s. The Japan government was aware of the issue and failed to stop this avoidable public health crisis. After years of denial, the current finance minister, Naoto Kan, who was health minister in 1994, revealed documents showing that the government allowed the companies to continue selling the bad blood so that they would not lose market share to foreign companies selling safe blood products."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704533204575047370633234414.html?mod=WSJ_hp_us_mostpop_read

Jpanese auto giant Toyota has known about accelerator problems in some of its cars since 2007, German newspapers reported on Friday.
Other glitches have since appeared in its flagship hybrid model Prius.
In Germany, more than 215,000 cars covering eight models have been affected by the recalls.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/business/2010/February/business_February156.xml&section=business

So far, Toyota has proposed relatively low-cost fixes to the problems that cause sudden acceleration, such as a small shim for gas pedals that outside experts say probably costs a few pennies to produce. But if an electronics problem is found, new microprocessors or new engine control modules could be a lot more expensive, apart from labor costs.
Harold Watkins, a Studio City owner of a 2007 Avalon, said he finds Toyota's explanations "ludicrous."
"My Avalon's sudden acceleration problem . . . had absolutely nothing to do with a sticky accelerator pedal nor a floor mat," Watkins said. Like many Toyota owners, he suspects the computer-controlled throttle system.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fi-toyota-electronics14-2010feb14,0,5002647.story

Toyota Owner: Ride 'A Near Death Experience'
In tearful testimony before lawmakers, Rhonda Smith, a Tennessee woman detailed how her Toyota-made Lexus suddenly zoomed to 100 miles per hour. She described her nightmare ride in as "a near death experience." (Feb. 23)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi3VvEFriEw

More owners of Toyota vehicles say recall repairs aren't working
Some of the more than 60 drivers reporting incidents say sudden unintended acceleration has happened to them more than once since having modifications done at dealers
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-complaints5-2010mar05,0,1386834.story

Toyota saw '07 U.S. floormat recall as money-saving win
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61K2LV20100221

I found Toyota's claim that a Ford vehicle would react the same if the sensor leads are shorted together hard to believe. Ford's system operates on opposing slopes. Side 1 goes low as the pedal is depressed by sides 2 and 3 goes higher. At best, it might respond if 2 and 3 match, but it would still set a code and turn on a light, because neither side's supposed to ever be over 4 volts, unless they've changed something.

OK, now I've read Exponents report and it's a big crock. Dr. Gilbert plainly said he connected the two sensor wires DIRECTLY to 5V reference. On all the cars they tested except the Avalon, they used a resistor on the reference feed, which would choke it below 5V, which is what Dr. Gilbert complained about in the first place. On all the cars tested, they varied the resistance between the two sensors until the found one that wouldn't trigger a DTC. In his testimony, he said he varied the resistance; sometimes it caused performance problems; other times everything was fine, but a DTC was never set. In the video, he seems to be using 200 ohms of resistance, but note that the reporter saying the car runs FINE at THAT resistance. That's what he was demonstrating at that resistance, but he used other resistances. All that Exponent is doing is using resistors to make the system on the cars they're testing behave like they're supposed to. Every car except the Subie uses a ratio-seperated scale to maintain redundancy. They've proved nothing because all they've done is prove what Dr. Gilbert said: The Avalon will take FULL reference voltage as a valid reading as well as a reading on both sides of almost identical voltages, which is not the test at all that they did on the other cars tested.

I'm confused.

gg,
It's obvious you are not very bright as none of your posts prove that Toyota had lied.

Commenting just on the ABC report, it's incredible that a major news network would allow the staging of the news. That's exactly what happened when they recreated the tachometer shot. Passing off staged images as news is taboo at the network level. The whole crew and the people who approved the story should be fired. In the past NBC fired a news crew for asking shoppers to pick up items and look at the prices for their camera. Toyota should file a formal complaint against that outrageous behavior, which unlike Toyota's mistakes, was intentional.

Toyotas glory days are clearly over.Years of covering up flaws in their vehicles in order to maintain an image of bulletproof reliability has blown up in their face.Me Toyoda not bowing in America when apologizing is telling...he even bowed in China of all places...but not America.Toyota has a disdain for America and if you buy one of their cars,you are as un*patriotic as they are.

That should have read "Mr Toyoda" not "Me Toyoda"...I would never ever claim that I was a Toyoda...lol

Electronic problems can be a nightmare to fix. They often do not readily present themselves. Put the whistles and bells back on the space shuttle and make cars safe and reliable again!

"Toyota has a disdain for America and if you buy one of their cars,you are as un*patriotic as they are."

You can always spot the uneducated and insecure low wage earning putz's by the racist comments they make.

Finally, today, Toyota called ABC on its phoney, staged simulation. ABC and its professor stepped over the line when they rewired the Toyota's throttle system and passed it off as proof of an electronic problem. Like CBS with it's hatchet job on Audi and NBC with its rigging of GM pickups so they would explode when hit from the side, now it's ABC's turn to be called on the carpet. I hope Toyota pursues this until ABC is finally forced to apologize.