Yesterday I get a recall notice in the mail from Toyota. It's another "Floor Mat Recall".

What caught my eye was this statement in the recall notice:

"If your vehicle is equipped with a set of optional genuine Tohota All Weather Floor Mats (AWFM), it will be inspected to determine if the AWFM set is of an older design. If it is, the older design AWFMs for the driver and the front seat passenger will be replaced with a newly designed ones at NO CHARGE to you."

My Tacoma is a 2005 (first year), and I bought a set of Toyota AWFMs when I purchased the truck, so they are probably the "older design". I have no issues with the floor mats ... they are locked into the floor hooks and don't move at all, and the mat area under the gas pedal is about 4+ inches away. I see zero chance of the gas pedal getting caught up in the AWFM.

Anyone know what the "newly designed" AWFMs look like and how they differ from the "older design" as Toyota calls them?

Interesting... I also have a set of Toyota AWFMs that I bought when we got our Tacoma in 2005. We also have no problems at all with ours, though I guess a new set would bet OK if they were offered -- IF they cover about the same amount of carpet.

Incidentally, we never got a recall notice the first time around. Wonder if we will this time?

If you search in the Tundra forums, everyone is disappointed in the 'new' design and are opting to keep their originals

watch the video on the tacoma site

Toyota Recall Information ? Pedal Recall ? Floor Mat Recall (http://www.toyota.com/recall/floormat-pedal.html)

he said if you do not want the new all weather mats you can receive a reimbursement

hummmm

I don't know why Toyota is doing this recall on the Tacomas. I have the AWFMs I bought in 2005 when I bought the truck, and they have the hook holes and are firmly locked into the floor hooks and can't move anywhere. Plus, there is so much space between the mat and the bottom of the gas pedal there is no way the pedal and mat could ever even get close to each other. I think Toyota is operating on paranoia at this point. I don't want Toyota grinding the bottom 1/3 of my gas pedal off when there's plenty of room as it is.

I don't want Toyota grinding the bottom 1/3 of my gas pedal off when there's plenty of room as it is.

I agree 100% and I had decided to just ignore this recall. But from what I have read they are now going to reflash the ECU to prevent any throttle opening when the brakes are applied at the same time they do the pedal mod. I am concerned that if we don't get the new software, it might be an issue whenever we decide to sell our trucks.

Opinions anyone?

on another forum several folks that did the flash are very happy, it seemed to fix a problem with throttle response noted in turning with the auto tranny

on another forum several folks that did the flash are very happy, it seemed to fix a problem with throttle response noted in turning with the auto tranny

Where can I find more info about this ECU flash and what's it supposed to "fix". My 5-speed automatic seems to shift fine and the throttle response also seems fine on my Tacoma. Is this ECU flash for all model years? Mine is 2005 V-6 with 5-seed auto.

A bit more info / discussion in this TN thread Tacoma Recall - Toyota Forums :: Toyota Nation (http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352080)

Where can I find more info about this ECU flash and what's it supposed to "fix". My 5-speed automatic seems to shift fine and the throttle response also seems fine on my Tacoma. Is this ECU flash for all model years? Mine is 2005 V-6 with 5-seed auto.

I think it applies to most, if not all model years of the Tacoma. The main reason for this flash is to make it impossible to have any throttle opening when the brakes are also applied. IMO it is mostly a CYA move on Toyota's part to protect themselves from unintended accleration claims.

But if you don't have it done, when you sell your truck you will be selling a vehicle with a possible safety issue which you chose to ignore and not have fixed. That just seems like it could be a problem to me. I just got my notice in the mail for my 05 yesterday, so I guess I will have to decide one way or the other soon. My 05 V-6 automatic performs fine as well and I am not wild about doing something that might screw it up.

I think it applies to most, if not all model years of the Tacoma. The main reason for this flash is to make it impossible to have any throttle opening when the brakes are also applied. IMO it is mostly a CYA move on Toyota's part to protect themselves from unintended accleration claims.

But if you don't have it done, when you sell your truck you will be selling a vehicle with a possible safety issue which you chose to ignore and not have fixed. That just seems like it could be a problem to me. I just got my notice in the mail for my 05 yesterday, so I guess I will have to decide one way or the other soon. My 05 V-6 automatic performs fine as well and I am not wild about doing something that might screw it up.

I have not received anything in the mail from Toyota saying I should have the ECU re-flashed as a safety measure against sudden acceleration - unless the text is burried in the floormat recall notice, but I don't remember reading anything about a re-flash being necessary.

Until I specifically get a safety recall notice for this ECU re-flash, then I have to assume it's still in Toyota's "responsibility court" to inform all owners of suspect vehicles to have this done under a specific safety recall.

I have not received anything in the mail from Toyota saying I should have the ECU re-flashed as a safety measure against sudden acceleration - unless the text is burried in the floormat recall notice, but I don't remember reading anything about a re-flash being necessary.

In the pedal recall letter from Toyota they mention that you will also get a brake override as part of this recall. From what I have read, reflashing your ECU is how they implement the brake override. The ECU already has an input that determines whether the brakes are applied, and it also controls the thottle opening angle based on inputs from the throttle sensor. All it takes is a software change to not allow any throttle opening when the brakes are also applied. The majority of other car makers already do this, and after all of the bad publicity Toyota has decided to do it as well. As the TN post discusses, this is not always the best thing for offroading, and that might be why Toyota did not do it in the first place. But they didn't do it on any of their cars either, so I do not know why they chose to do it this way. All Toyota products getting any of the accelerator pedal recalls are also getting the brake override done at the same time.

it was "burried" in the recall notice read ALL of the "what will Toyota do?"
on page 1

they have some "rules for the override" so it is not just if you apply brakes the throttle stops ! think it was on the toyota page online they had the flow chart on it, i do not have 4X but think the rules will still allow off road without any troubles

The new floor mats are the same size just thinner. The reason they updated them is because people are stacking aftermarket mats on top of the originals. This can cause them to slide up under the pedal and cause problems. The thinner mats give more room for the aftermarket mats. Not all floor mat recall vehicles are getting the ecu reflash for the brake over ride. Tacoma does get it, and it only works when traveling over 30mph. All hybrids already have it.

found it this is what the ecu reflash will do on braking and acekeration http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota/document/Toyota_BrakeOverrideSystem.pdf