What's that? Lexus? Really?

Jstas

Hey, remember that Toyota recall for floor mats that cause "unintended acceleration"? If not, here you go:

http://jalopnik.com/5370486/feds-recall-lexus-toyota-floor-mats-due-to-potential-for-fiery-death

Yeah, well, here's the official fix:



Yes folks, zipties. I am not kidding.

http://jalopnik.com/5377355//gallery/?selectedImage=1

Good job, Toyota.

NJPOLKER

Thats some funny ****. How the hell did you find that?
I will never buy another Honda/Acura again. The Acura TL is great but burns through tires and brakes and the ride was hard. I know is a sport sedan but not my style anymore. And then the disaster with my wifes new Accord, the brakes shot after 12k miles.

leroyjr1

They could atleast used a black zip tie

Kex

If, for some reason you're unable to pull the mat out of the driver's side of your car and you experience "unintended acceleration" you are to immediately "pull back floor mat. If that doesn't work, stand on brake pedal with both feet." Seriously.

Can't you just turn off the ignition to cut the power? That's what I did with the old Chevy truck when the cruise control jammed on at 70 mph heading up an off ramp!

I hadn't realized a whole family had gone up in flames because of this. That "official fix", if true is very lame for a luxury brand.

Jstas

leroyjr1 wrote: »

They could atleast used a black zip tie

Maybe the Lexuses (Lexii?) get chrome ones 'cause they're...you know...fancier?

But what would they do about the ones with the "gold package"?

Ah hell, ain't nuthin' a can of Krylon couldn't fix!





When you want to say it with love, say it with Krylon!

concealer404

NJPOLKER wrote: »

Thats some funny ****. How the hell did you find that?
I will never buy another Honda/Acura again. The Acura TL is great but burns through tires and brakes and the ride was hard. I know is a sport sedan but not my style anymore. And then the disaster with my wifes new Accord, the brakes shot after 12k miles.

The brakes, inexcusable... the tires? Dumb alignment specs i would imagine.

I run 200 treadwear rating tires on the Celica, and i typically get 20-25k miles out of them with fairly agressive alignment specs. (lots of camber, toe, etc...)

Jstas

Kex wrote: »

Can't you just turn off the ignition to cut the power? That's what I did with the old Chevy truck when the cruise control jammed on at 70 mph heading up an off ramp!

I hadn't realized a whole family had gone up in flames because of this. That "official fix", if true is very lame for a luxury brand.

The car that they all got killed dead in had push-button ignition. Toyota expects you to hold the button in for like 6 seconds to kill the engine. As far as shifting out of gear, if it was a flappy-paddled, manumatic, that's not so easy to do.

dkg999

So when someone's foot gets tangled in the zip-tie and they can't hit the brakes and kill someone .......... wow that's a PI lawyers wet dream!

Kex

Jstas wrote: »

... As far as shifting out of gear ...

Now that you mention it: that's what I did first, when I realized that I could push as hard as I liked on the brakes, it wasn't stopping - it just shifted down a gear, which on a V8 truck, is gonna take more than brakes with "both feet" on the pedal. Of course, once in neutral, it started roaring like crazy, which is when I turned the key to cut the engine. The STOP sign was coming up fast, and there was no road on the other side!

That zip tie solution reminds me of a GE Profile dishwasher recall. It was in our last rental unit. We had a stainless steel model in it, and there was an issue with fluid leaking into the door from the rinse aid filler, and then causing fires. GE sent a technician who:

(1) Opened the door up,
(2) Said our unit had no leak, and was not defective,
(3) Replaced the wire harness which would have caused the fire had it been defective,
(4) Proceeded to remove most of the sound proofing material from the door,
(5) Replaced it with some thin sticky material.

It was a whole lot noisier after that, and not very "Profile" at all (much like that Lexus doesn't look so "luxury" any more, either) and left me wishing I had never called, but the whole fire potential thingy sounded too dangerous in an old house with bedrooms and kids upstairs.

sucks2beme

Kind of like the old Chevy Monza v8 fix for the rear spark plug.
Didn't they drill a hole in the inner fender, and rtv a piece of rubber over the hole after changing the spark plug?

obieone

Is velcro too much math for this billion dollar co.???

Jstas

obieone wrote: »

Is velcro too much math for this billion dollar co.???

They used a break away clip attached to the bottom of the mat so that customers didn't have to labor the idea of a grommet in their floor mat. For shame!

They could have done like Ford, stuck a piping wrapped grommet in the mat and molded a hook in to the carpet backing that protrudes through the pile of the carpet to grab the finished off grommet. Looks good, barely noticeable and the mat doesn't move.

I guess a zip tie and two holes that look like the mechanic chewed them open with his teeth are MUCH more preferable.

Aside from the obvious women's high heeled shoe getting caught in the loop in a panic situation, what happens when the zip tie gets caught in the seat adjustment rails and mechanism?

I had a penny get stuck in the seat rail of a Hyundai I had the unfortunate chance to experience. The seat rail eventually broke because of it and the seat literally fell backwards sliding off the back of the rail, with me in it, at 45 MPH on a non-divided 4-lane highway. Talk about fun!

DeusExa

Whew doesn't affect 09' ES350...

Kex

Jstas wrote: »

... I had a penny get stuck in the seat rail of a Hyundai I had the unfortunate chance to experience. The seat rail eventually broke because of it and the seat literally fell backwards sliding off the back of the rail, with me in it, at 45 MPH on a non-divided 4-lane highway. Talk about fun!

Admit it Jstas: you engineered that failure on purpose.

(1) You unscrewed the seat rail on a Hyundai and put a penny in it,
(2) You then drove to a public place,
(3) You pretended to have a problem while driving, yelling for help and gesticulating wildly,
(4) You fell off your seat in front of everyone shouting "ouch! ow! ouch!",
(5) You got out and proclaimed to all that would listen that this "fern ****" just fell apart beneath you, and that you could have been killed if it weren't for your lightning fast reflexes.

SKsolutions

I was hoping to get a new mat, not a ziptie. That carpet mat setup is fine. I have to really work it to get it up to move in order to vacuum under it. The rubber one I have placed over it, I have to check occasionally to make sure it doesn't independently creep upward, but isn't that common sense? It's not anchored.
These people need to stop drinking the Brondo.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I had a whole response typed up and somehow deleted it, and don't feel like retyping it all again, so I'll summarize.

1 - I was wondering how long it would take John to create this thread, I'm honestly surprised it took this long since he seems to go out of his way to bring anything anti-Toyota or pr0-Ford to the forum.

2 - The floormat thing isn't THAT big of a deal. Seriously, if the mat gets stuck, how hard is it to teach down and move it back a little?

3 - We all know that the zip tie is not going to be the permanent solution, it's going to be a temporary fix, so lets all stop pretending to be gasped by this crude fix. Aside from common sense, historical data also suggests this - Toyota is not a company of band-aid fixes.

When Toyota starts making vehicles with exploding tires or faulty cruise control modules that catch the truck on fire (actually seen the latter, kinda funny) lets have a real conversation about quality control. By the way, on the latter, the 'official' fix from Ford for a while was to disable the whole cruise control system. My neighbor decided to pass on that and then his truck caught fire in the driveway like 3 months later. Of course I'm sure Ford has a better fix out now, my point is that a TEMPORARY solution, just like the ziptie.

concealer404

SKsolutions wrote: »

I was hoping to get a new mat, not a ziptie. That carpet mat setup is fine. I have to really work it to get it up to move in order to vacuum under it. The rubber one I have placed over it, I have to check occasionally to make sure it doesn't independently creep upward, but isn't that common sense? It's not anchored.
These people need to stop drinking the Brondo.

But it's got ELECTROLYTES!!!

concealer404

I still can't get my brain around HOW a floormat is going to pin a gas pedal down? WTF are these people doing with their feet to cause this?!?!?

If my floormat in the Mazda gets moved forward and bunched up, it actually keeps me from going WOT...

AsSiMiLaTeD

I will admit that Toyota has been hit with a few things lately, this being by far the biggest. However, I believe that if you make great cars for decades and basically revolutionize the manufacturing process (note I said revolutionize, not create, that honor goes to the early Henry Ford) you get a free pass every once in a while.

On a somewhat related note, I've read the apology and speech that Mr Toyoda gave last week. I'm not saying the guy is a saint, but it's refreshing to see this from a company president:

http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2009/10/02/what-gm-can-learn-from-toyotas-humility.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/business/global/03toyota.html?em
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/danielhowesblog/index.php?blogid=320

Jstas

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

I had a whole response typed up and somehow deleted it, and don't feel like retyping it all again, so I'll summarize.

1 - I was wondering how long it would take John to create this thread, I'm honestly surprised it took this long since he seems to go out of his way to bring anything anti-Toyota or pr0-Ford to the forum.

2 - The floormat thing isn't THAT big of a deal. Seriously, if the mat gets stuck, how hard is it to teach down and move it back a little?

3 - We all know that the zip tie is not going to be the permanent solution, it's going to be a temporary fix, so lets all stop pretending to be gasped by this crude fix. Aside from common sense, historical data also suggests this - Toyota is not a company of band-aid fixes.

When Toyota starts making vehicles with exploding tires or faulty cruise control modules that catch the truck on fire (actually seen the latter, kinda funny) lets have a real conversation about quality control. By the way, on the latter, the 'official' fix from Ford for a while was to disable the whole cruise control system. My neighbor decided to pass on that and then his truck caught fire in the driveway like 3 months later. Of course I'm sure Ford has a better fix out now, my point is that a TEMPORARY solution, just like the ziptie.

1.) **** you.

2.) The mat, coming from the "engineering gods" at Toyota shouldn't be an issue to begin with.

3.) No, you're right, Toyota is not a company of band-aid fixes, it's a company of cover-ups.

Stop crying like a little baby and trying to start an argument. Toyota screwed up, bad, over a FLOORMAT and people DIED. Over a FLOORMAT. The only reason they haven't covered it up like the rusting frames, faulty airbag systems, sludging engines to destruction and so on is because NHTSA mandated an investigation.

And since you are a moron, the OFFICIAL fix for the cruise control from Ford was to replace the module with a redesigned module. The disablement was temporary because they could not produce enough modules fast enough to cover everyone. Once a module came in to cover your recall, Ford replaced it, free of charge. I know this first hand because I was affected by the recall.

Also, the tire thing? Yeah, Ford was found to not be at fault by the U.S. courts. It was the Japanese company, Firestone (parent company is Bridgestone), that was blamed and had to pay settlement to Ford. Ford, in an effort to make things right, issued a recall on ALL Firestone tires, not just the ones on Explorers, covered the costs of damages and told Firestone to pound sand. You will not see Firestone tires on ANY new Ford vehicle because of all of that.

You're a moron because I've posted that before, with proof. You obviously chose to ignore it and now, in your fanboy diatribe here you have done nothing but get your facts completely wrong and do nothing more than attack me personally.

Me, I find humor in this because of people scream brand allegiance at me, kinda like you, and then when Toyota **** up and kills people we should "give them a free pass". That's a gross oversight IMO and smacks of blind brand allegiance. I don't claim any car manufacturer is perfect but I certainly don't go around making excuses and having pie-eyed visions of what I think a car manufacturer should be.

By the way, your rationalization for Toyota's free pass? Yeah, their manufacturing process has killed people, literally, from over-working. Beyond that, they may have revolutionized it but, so did Ford. They didn't invent manufacturing, they revolutionized how it was done. They've also made great cars for decades, long before Toyoda was ever an itch in his daddy's crotch. For that, we should give them a "free pass". :rolleyes:

It was a stupid post over floormats and the humor behind the situation and the fact that it's a Lexus with floormats ziptied to the chair rail. A Lexus. It's redneck engineering at it's best. But, you had to turn it into something personal. ****.

concealer404

Just wanted to point out that Assimilated did in fact point out that the Ford cruise control "fix" by disabling was in fact, temporary. Sooo.... yeah.

I got nothing on the rest. Everyone here cares way too much.

Oh. And, my Toyota is the ****.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm not quite sure how to respond to that, so I probably shouldn't even try. Was my original post a personal attack on you? After reading it again, I'd say, a bit, maybe. I probably could have done without point # 1, but somehow I knew you'd be the one to bring this up, and for some reason at the moment felt the need to mention that.

It certainly wasn't done with the hatred that's pouring out of your post, but I can see how it comes across so I apologize.

Thinking back now, it does also seem that every time you create a thread about the faults of Toyota or the greatness of Ford I do tend to chime in with a post similar to the one above. I don't do this to personally attack you or anger you, I do it more to balance out a discussion. That's what we're all here to do, discuss things. I'm allowed to bring up points of view that don't necessarily allign with yours. My post could probably do without the leading lines similar to point #1 in this thread, so I'll keep that in mind.

As far as being a fanboy as you described, I'm no bigger a fan of Toyota products that you are of Ford. I think it's safe to say that I'm loyal to Toyota because of my experiences with them and I've never experienced or seen the issues with them that I have with some other automakers, but if that changes and they start making crap cars then I'll switch brands.

You seem to think I'm out to attack you personally, like I have something against you. Hell, I don't even know you, and if you go back and read all my posts I tend to agree with you more than I disagree, this is just one topic on which we're both very passionate.

Having said all that, maybe your response was a tad harsh, no?

Polkersince85

Kex wrote: »

Can't you just turn off the ignition to cut the power?

Back when the column lock first came out, a buddy of mine was driving down the interstate with his GF. She got mad at him and turned the key and pulled them out. Yep, the steering locked and they went into the medium. Not a good idea.

exalted512

Polkersince85 wrote: »

Back when the column lock first came out, a buddy of mine was driving down the interstate with his GF. She got mad at him and turned the key and pulled them out. Yep, the steering locked and they went into the medium. Not a good idea.

i hope they didnt get hurt, b/c i laughed at that. Most new cars will not let you take the key out of the ignition if in gear, but will allow you to turn it off.

This whole thing actually happened to my best friend in his 03 mustang with the stock floor mats. It somehow got wedged under the brake and over the gas pedal.

He was in the parking lot of our high school and started randomly doing a massive burn out, then threw it in reverse and was doing a massive burn out in reverse. We thought he was being stupid, but it was actually because the gas pedal got pinned...so he went to throw it in neutral in the panic...and accidentally threw the shifter all the way into reverse (automatic).

Good thing no one was hurt by it.
-Cody

concealer404

exalted512 wrote: »

i hope they didnt get hurt, b/c i laughed at that. Most new cars will not let you take the key out of the ignition if in gear, but will allow you to turn it off.

This whole thing actually happened to my best friend in his 03 mustang with the stock floor mats. It somehow got wedged under the brake and over the gas pedal.

He was in the parking lot of our high school and started randomly doing a massive burn out, then threw it in reverse and was doing a massive burn out in reverse. We thought he was being stupid, but it was actually because the gas pedal got pinned...so he went to throw it in neutral in the panic...and accidentally threw the shifter all the way into reverse (automatic).

Good thing no one was hurt by it.
-Cody

Noooo..... i call BS. That would NEVER happen in a Ford!

brettw22

I can totally see some case coming out where some chick hooks her heel in the zip tie and then can't suddenly get back to the pedals........

sucks2beme

Jstas wrote: »

1.) **** you.

.

Chill. It's not like he told you your dog was ugly or anything.

My son worked as a mechanic at a Lexus dealer for about a year.
He was really amused by all the people that truly believed that something
couldn't be broken because "it was a Lexus". Even if they did something stupid
to cause a failure, they would rant on how that should never happen in a Lexus. I wonder how they're taking this?

exalted512

concealer404 wrote: »

Noooo..... i call BS. That would NEVER happen in a Ford!

im surprised the transmission didn't blow up...ford, chevy, toyota, honda whatever. When you go from doing a burn out in drive, then switch it to reverse and go the other way without ever letting off the gas...and didnt stall or anything. props for that.
-Cody

Serendipity

exalted512 wrote: »

im surprised the transmission didn't blow up...ford, chevy, toyota, honda whatever. When you go from doing a burn out in drive, then switch it to reverse and go the other way without ever letting off the gas...and didnt stall or anything. props for that.
-Cody

My mom did that once about 10 years ago... the shifter was loose and accidentally knocked it into reverse. Good thing we were only going 30mph!

mantis

Jstas wrote: »

1.) **** you.

2.) The mat, coming from the "engineering gods" at Toyota shouldn't be an issue to begin with.

3.) No, you're right, Toyota is not a company of band-aid fixes, it's a company of cover-ups.

Stop crying like a little baby and trying to start an argument. Toyota screwed up, bad, over a FLOORMAT and people DIED. Over a FLOORMAT. The only reason they haven't covered it up like the rusting frames, faulty airbag systems, sludging engines to destruction and so on is because NHTSA mandated an investigation.

And since you are a moron, the OFFICIAL fix for the cruise control from Ford was to replace the module with a redesigned module. The disablement was temporary because they could not produce enough modules fast enough to cover everyone. Once a module came in to cover your recall, Ford replaced it, free of charge. I know this first hand because I was affected by the recall.

Also, the tire thing? Yeah, Ford was found to not be at fault by the U.S. courts. It was the Japanese company, Firestone (parent company is Bridgestone), that was blamed and had to pay settlement to Ford. Ford, in an effort to make things right, issued a recall on ALL Firestone tires, not just the ones on Explorers, covered the costs of damages and told Firestone to pound sand. You will not see Firestone tires on ANY new Ford vehicle because of all of that.

You're a moron because I've posted that before, with proof. You obviously chose to ignore it and now, in your fanboy diatribe here you have done nothing but get your facts completely wrong and do nothing more than attack me personally.

Me, I find humor in this because of people scream brand allegiance at me, kinda like you, and then when Toyota **** up and kills people we should "give them a free pass". That's a gross oversight IMO and smacks of blind brand allegiance. I don't claim any car manufacturer is perfect but I certainly don't go around making excuses and having pie-eyed visions of what I think a car manufacturer should be.

By the way, your rationalization for Toyota's free pass? Yeah, their manufacturing process has killed people, literally, from over-working. Beyond that, they may have revolutionized it but, so did Ford. They didn't invent manufacturing, they revolutionized how it was done. They've also made great cars for decades, long before Toyoda was ever an itch in his daddy's crotch. For that, we should give them a "free pass". :rolleyes:

It was a stupid post over floormats and the humor behind the situation and the fact that it's a Lexus with floormats ziptied to the chair rail. A Lexus. It's redneck engineering at it's best. But, you had to turn it into something personal. ****.

Dude leave this forum for awhile. you shouldn't get all worked up over this. Your making yourself look bad here. I'd hate to see you get kicked out.

Systems

Step 1: Remove said floor mat

Step 2: Oh, guess theres no step 2....