WHILE DRIVING WITH MY 2 CHILDREN ON A CITY STREET, THE ENTIRE CAR SHUT DOWN INCLUDING ALL POWER STEERING AND BRAKES. THERE WERE NO ADVANCE WARNING SIGNS OR NOISES UNTIL A MINUTE BEFORE IT HAPPENED. FORTUNATELY, I WAS ABLE TO PULL OVER WITHOUT CAUSING AN ACCIDENT. HAD I BEEN ON THE INTERSTATE AND UNABLE TO PULL OVER, IT WOULD HAVE CREATED A MAJOR ACCIDENT AND SAFETY ISSUE. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO CLOSEST DEALER WHERE THEY DETERMINED THE SPRING VALVE IN CYLINDER 5 HAD BROKEN IN HALF AND DROPPED INTO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER, CAUSING THE ENGINE TO SEIZE. AFTER DOING RESEARCH ON 2013-2014 TOYOTA TACOMA AND SIMILAR LEXUS VEHICLES IT APPEARS THERE WERE RECALLS DUE TO THE EXACT SAME ISSUE OCCURRING WHERE THE SPRING WAS DEFECTIVE DUE TO AN ISSUE BY A SPRING SUPPLIER/MANUFACTURING. ADDITIONALLY, THE 2013-2014 LANDCRUISER (SAME YEAR) ALSO HAD A RECALL FOR THIS PROBLEM OUTSIDE OF THE U.S. SINCE ONLY 3,000 LANDCRUISERS WERE SOLD IN THE U.S. IN 2014, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE NHTSA EXAMINES THIS INCIDENT CLOSELY (AS COMPARED TO 155,000 TACOMA'S SOLD THE SAME YEAR WHICH DID HAVE THE RECALL) . I STRONGLY BELIEVE THE 2014 LANDCRUISERS HAVE THE SAME DEFECTIVE SPRING VALVE ISSUE AS THE TACOMA BUT THE RATIO IS OFF SKEW AND NOT REPORTED YET. THIS IS A MAJOR SAFETY ISSUE FOR LANDCRUISERS ON THE ROAD!!! PLEASE RESEARCH.
- NHTSA ID
- 11414332
- Incident
- Mar 30, 2021
- Mileage
- 58,000 mi