Lexus and Toyota recall floor mats

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has announced it will recall 55,000 All-Weather Floor Mats due to a problem with the mats potentially getting stuck under the accelerator pedal in certain cars. If not secured properly using the provided retention hooks, the heavy-duty rubber mats can slide forward causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably. The recall affects driver's side floor mats that were an option on 2007 and early 2008 Lexus ES 350 and Toyota Camry models. (Read about the September 29, 2009, Toyota and Lexus floor mat recall.)  

Toyota will notify owners by mail in early October and will begin replacing the mats in November at no charge to consumers.

Toyota also urges all drivers utilizing a driver's side floor mat to make sure they are properly secured and not placed on top of another floor mat. The hooks for the mats are designed to accommodate only one floor mat at a time.

If you have any questions on the recall, contact your local Toyota (888-270-9371) or Lexus (800-255-3987) dealer. Or call the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Hotline at 888-327-4236.

Although this recall affected Toyota and Lexus vehicles, improper mat usage can pose risks in any vehicle. When installing factory or aftermarket mats, follow the directions. If your vehicle has them, utilize the mat anchors; they provide a real safety benefit of keeping the mats secure and out of the way of the pedals. And do not stack a new mat on the old one. The combined height of the two mats or a loose upper mat may interfere with pedal operation.

Update 9/30/09: 

Toyota advises 3.8 million Lexus and Toyota owners to remove floor mats
Misaligned floor mat may have caused calamity

--Liza Barth

Discuss Lexus and Toyota in the Consumer Reports Forums.

Comments

[Speedracer]

I've used aftermarket mats for many years. Most I've had slip under the accelerator at some point and result in a sustained run up in speed and sometimes is frightening. I don't know of any aftermarket mats that have the anchors. Even those that are ordered as "custom" from very large aftermarket firms.

[pepprdog]

Not using the anchors isn't a defect, it's simple owner/operator error. Why is the manufacturer being required to recall something because the people won't pay attention to the common sense instructions.

[Mister Ed]

Pepprdog: The reason Toyota needs to recall these mats is because (1) people should not be made to pay with their lives because they have slipped one mat in on top of another, (2) the "innocent" drivers of other cars collided with by out of control Toyotas deserve protection. I had these mats in combination with the start/stop BUTTON and experienced a 90 mile per hour ride down I55 with no way to stop the thing. It was a miracle my wife and I were not killed. The ONLY way I could stop the car was to put the car in neutral, at 90 mph, and get to the shoulder. If this would have happened on the 2 lane roads where I normally drive, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have injured/killed myself and/or others.
The directions for installation of this mat are in about size 8 font and are very easily missed (black letters on a black background) as I recall. Car manufacturers should consider every possibility in the design of their cars. When an "eager beaver" mistake such as this is so easily made, again, people should not have to pay with their lives, or others' lives, too.

[Shane Watson]

Your information is quite helpful for us in buying Floor mats for our car. Thanks for this informative post.

[Linda Johnson]

I have a 2007 Toyota Rav 4 and in July this happened to me. There were no mat anchors of any kind built into the car and I did not have double mats in place. Luckily I was going slowly, turning a corner when the mat somehow hooked the accelerator. The car suddenly raced ahead and when I applied the brakes, the car lurched and bucked and I had no idea what was happening. I almost rear-ended the car in front of me, but I somehow was able to steer the car into a parking lot. I had to have my car towed, paid $100 for a diagnostic test, only to have the mechanic tell me nothing was wrong. When I insisted he look again, he figured out that the floor mat caught on the gas pedal. He mentioned that this is not the first time this has happened. I suggested that Toyota write-up a report mentioning the dangers of this, the mechanic just shrugged. I believe Toyota has known about this for quite a while and did not do anything about. I am still upset about this and I almost traded my car in on the spot for fear it would happen again. Toyota installed free clips but I still had to pay for the diagnostic test and my insurance company, the towing.

[iffaffer]

I have a 2006 Tacoma. The retention hooks that hold the mats in place came off. The grommet that holds it to the carpet tore off and detached from the floor. My mat slides all the time. Maybe they need to secure the retention hook to the floor of the truck instead of the carpet?

[Leo]

For everyone saying this is user error does not own one of these vehicles. I have tried repeatedly to use my hooks but the actual hooks pop out of the flooring. This is not a mat problem, but a design defect with the actual hooks.

[CliffG]

I've installed aftermarket weather mats in all three of my current cars and some slide around but never have gone under the pedal where they could trap it. The Honda Insight has a post under the driver's seat and I put a hole in the mat. The factory carpet mat slides all over the place. My BMW factory carpet mats do not move around: the hook-and-loop is well designed and they stay in place.
The suggestion on tv that include turning off the engine are WRONG: two feet on the pedal, put it in neutral, (correct) and leave the engine on for power boost.
We at BMW CCA teach drivers what to do in a street emergency, especially for teens. Everyone should take a similar course, driver ed. and skills are remarkably lax compared to Europe.

[JCOW]

PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

[Dan in Montana]

I just bought a Toyota Tacoma and replaced the floor mats with after-market ones I bought at Costco.

My recommendation is to trim the floor mats to size and drill holes in the floor mats that match the factory ones. Next install gromets that you can purchase at any hardware store.

The mats look and fit better than the originals.

[William Tomb]

First the hooks for the floor mats don't work they rip out along with ring or break. Second the problem is toyota designed the pedal so that it requires a bump out in the passenger compartment. Meaning that the floor that's around the pedal is higher(pedal is pushed into the bump out) when the pedal is fully engaged. That means if a floor mat shift the bump out cause the pedal to become locked behind the mat. The real problem is the bump out and pedal design and not the floor mats hooks which come out or break. The retaining ring that toyota has for the mats does not last and is a poor design because the carpet becomes brittle with age and allows the hooks to be ripped out.

[JB inTX]

RE: Linda Johnson

You paid for a tow and a $100 to discover a slipped floormat??
WOW, bet you cant change your own flat either!!!!!

Completely driver error! Should a vehicle be recalled because a soda bottle landed on the floor and became lodged beneath the brake pedal? Should a manufacturer be required to recall that brake pedal because a soda bottle MIGHT get stuck beneath it? NO!! Driver shouldn't allow a soda bottle to end up there in the first place!! Toyota is just activating damage control to save face.

This is a tragic accident and I offer my condolences to the families, but you cant always blame an accident on someone else's negligence. Maybe, just maybe, it was your own negligence!!

[Phil S]

I don't get it; even if the accelerator is stuck to the floor, the brake will still stop the car.

[dotcom02]

Omg this is getting way out of hand. This shouldnt even be an issue. I work at a toyota dealerhsip and the recall is stupid. Only reason this happened is because a [EDIT] put the WRONG floor mats in their lexus and it got the floor pedal stuck. Keywork: WRONG floor mats. He crashed and killed everyone in the car.

[Rick]

I just had mine fixed at the Toyota dealership. With all of Toyota's engineering expertise,this was all they could come up with....zip tie the mat to the seat. I could have figgered this out while drinking a 6-pack in my truck shooting out the window.

[priusdriver]

Unfortunately it's not as easy as using the brakes or turning off the engine. You're online right now; take a few minutes and watch the video at the link below. Practice putting your car into neutral and share it with your friends. Hopefully we can learn from this and decrease at least this kind of tragedy for the future. (and Linda, I'm sorry JB took out their anger on you--your mechanic with all their training couldn't figure it out at first. There's no reason to expect you to have known. I hope you can get reimbursed or something. As previous comments have clarified this is not remotely similar to bottles falling by our feet, but a mis-design that Toyota is addressing.)

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/11/nhtsa-says-toyota-recall-and-investigation-is-not-over-yet.html