Toyota Australia has today announced that it will initiate a recall involving LandCruiser 70 vehicles produced between June 2016 and November 2018 to improve outreach to consumers. There are 22,971 vehicles involved in the Australian market.
This recall is regarding the accumulation of vegetation in the underbody of the involved vehicles. The involved LandCruiser 70 models are fitted with a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) system. A necessary function of the DPF system is to perform periodic regeneration, a cleaning process for the filter. A high engine operating temperature is necessary for this process to occur.
The DPF system has increased the importance of avoiding the accumulation of vegetation in the underbody when operating the vehicle in off-road and extremely dry vegetation environments. When driving in dry vegetation environments, there is the potential for grasses and seeds to accumulate around the underbody and exhaust system of these vehicles.
If the accumulated vegetation is not removed in accordance with maintenance instructions in the Owner Manual and warning label on the driver’s door panel, and operation of the vehicle is continued, the accumulated vegetation may combust due to the high temperature during regeneration.
For involved vehicles, Toyota Dealers will install free of charge to vehicle owners modified heatshields to parts of the vehicle’s exhaust area (depending on the model). Toyota Dealers will also enable the DPF manual regeneration customisation mode, which allows owners to conduct manual regeneration in a safe location prior to entering off-road, dry vegetation environments.
In addition, instructions on removal of accumulated vegetation will be placed in owners’ vehicles as part of this campaign.
It is expected that it will take approximately 3 hours to replace the exhaust heatshields. However, depending upon the dealer’s work schedule, it may be necessary for the owner to make the vehicle available for a longer period of time.
