Toyota recalls over 1 million vehicles due to wire harness problem

MANILA: Nowadays, top manufacturers recalling vehicles with some faults is very common. Toyota recently announced that over one million vehicles will be recalled globally. The main reason behind this recalling is that there is a possibility of catching fire due to some problem with the wiring.

Over 1.03 million vehicles are affected by this problem, which includes the likes of the Toyota Prius and the plug-in versions of the CH-R crossover and the Prius.

The wire harness is related to a vehicle’s power unit. The concerned vehicles have the mechanism connected to the Power Control Unit of the hybrid vehicles. According to Toyota, the wire harness might deteriorate over time and cause a short circuit and as a result, generate heat. And if the heat is high enough, the car might catch fire.

Toyota also said that all the vehicles that are affected will be checked by the Toyota dealers. The wire harness assembly will only be inspected by them and if a core of wires is revealed, they will replace the whole engine assembly by providing a new one. The new engine assembly will get a sleeve which will protect it from causing the short circuit. However, if they do not find any wire core issue, they will just install a protective tape on the engine assembly.

The Toyota Prius hybrid comes with a maximum power of 121 hp. However, with this moderate looking power, it only takes 11.1 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 kmph. It can further hit a top speed of 162 kmph on the speedometer.

The models made between June 2015 and May 2018 might be affected by this type of faults. The company will look for the problems and will repair the faulty one free of cost.

Out of all the vehicles that are suspected to have this fault, over 50% were sold in the company’s home market, Japan.