It seems like the world’s no.1 car manufacturing company, Toyota is having a time when it needs to recall its quality vehicles in order to fix one faulty car accessory or the other. Just recently, the Japanese car major had to announce that it needs to recall huge numbers of Corolla to fix the problem of malfunctioning air bags and now the company is recalling the FJ Cruisers.

However, this time it is not due to some faulty accessory problem, but super bright headlights that run the risk of blinding other vehicle drivers on the road, thus increasing the chances of a road accident. Hence, Toyota is recalling 11,489 units of its FJ Cruisers, which were manufactured between the years of 2006 and 2013. These Toyota FJ Cruisers are fitted with the Toyota Auxiliary Driving Lamp Kit that is excessively and bright according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the Japanese auto giant, the problem of these excessively bright lights was first discovered during the audit testing of the accessory lamps.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has presented a summary of the problem that states “These lamp assemblies include 55-watt bulbs and due to this wattage, the combination of the upper beam headlamps plus the auxiliary lamps are too bright and exceed the maximum light output allowed for an upper beam headlamp,”. The summary also clearly reads that these excessively bright lights could temporarily blind the oncoming drivers, which will increase the risk of a road crash.

The affected Toyota FJ Cruisers were produced from 25th January, 2006 and all through 23rd February, 2013. The Toyota Auxiliary Driving Lamp Kit was not however specified as an accessory light kit for any other Toyota vehicles but exclusively FJ Cruisers.

Toyota will be recalling 11,489 units of FJ Cruisers through its dealership network. The dealers are going to replace the 55-watt bulbs with 35-watt bulbs in order to reduce the luminosity as per the on-road safety standards. The recall procedure is supposed to begin towards the end of May 2013. Toyota is also requesting its customers who own an affected FJ Cruiser to call its helpline number. As replacing head lamps is not a lengthy process Toyota FJ Cruiser owners can be assured that it is a quick fix job for which the company dealers will not take much of the customers’ time. Needless to say, the entire replacing of the Toyota Auxiliary Driving Lamp Kit will be absolutely free of cost, as the company is reducing the wattage of the bulbs to follow the regulatory safety standards and to ensure the safety of its own customers as well as the other drivers and users. Safety measures are primary concerns of an auto company and that is why Toyota had previously recalled its Corollas to fix the faulty airbag problem.
Meanwhile, Toyota is busy working on the new Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) that the company wishes to sell by 2015.

Tagged: Toyota FJ Cruiser Recall