Toyota will recall about 100,000 vehicles over concerns that loose dirt in the engine could cause the engine to stall or otherwise malfunction, federal regulators say announced last week.
The recall affects approximately 3,500 Lexus LX SUVs made in 2022 and 2023 and nearly 100,000 Toyota Tundra pickup trucks from the same time frame, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.
The affected vehicles were built with V35A engines, which may not have been cleared of all production waste during assembly. This means some of the dirt could become loose and damage the engine, the agency said.
The production problem was resolved on later models, although a recall is the only way to solve the problem for cars already on the road.
Loose debris can “lead to possible engine knocking, rough engine running, engine failure to start and/or engine stalling,” the NHTSA wrote in its report.
A fix for the problem was not immediately made clear in the recall report, and the affected vehicles' engines may need to be disassembled to ensure they are free of debris. Any repairs would be free of charge, the agency said.
The administration noted no injuries or deaths related to the defect, and said the problem was discovered in engine failure reports from March 2022.
Vehicle owners will be officially notified of the recall by the end of next month, according to the regulator's documentation.
