Toyota to recall 885,000 vehicles worldwide to fix water leak from air conditioner

Toyota Motor Corp yesterday said that it will conduct  voluntary recall of 885,000 vehicles worldwide to fix a water leak from the air conditioning unit, taking the total number of cars recalled this year by the Japanese carmaker to six million vehicles.

Toyota is recalling approximately 803,000 model year 2012-2013 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, and Venza vehicles in North America, while the rest will be in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The carmaker said that water from the air conditioning condenser unit housing could leak onto the airbag control module and cause a short circuit, resulting in illumination of the airbag warning light. 

In some instances, the air bags could become disabled or could inadvertently deploy.

In limited instances, the power steering assist function could also become inoperable if a communication line in the airbag control module is damaged.  Loss of power steering assist results in increased steering effort.

Toyota said that its dealers will apply sealant and install a cover to the air conditioning condenser unit housing seam located above the airbag control module.

This is the third major recall announcement made by Toyota in recent weeks, an indication that the company continues to struggle with quality issues.

Last month, the company recalled about 235,000 vehicles over two separate issues, and 615,000 Sienna minivans in the US to fix a lever problem that could cause vehicles to shift out of park mode without the driver depressing the brake pedal.

Since the past two years, Toyota has recalled nearly 20 million vehicles worldwide, a number that is far mare than the recalls it made in 2009 and 2010, which is considered as the worst years of recalls in the history of Toyota.