NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
Preliminary Evaluation PE08-025: ACCELERATOR PEDAL INTERFERENCE
- Closed
NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened Preliminary Evaluation PE08-025 on April 10, 2008 and closed it on August 8, 2008, the day it opened Engineering Analysis EA08-014, which this investigation's summary cites. NHTSA's investigations file lists the 2004 Toyota Sienna for it.
Updated daily from NHTSA's investigations file
Key facts
- NHTSA number
- PE08-025 (also written PE08025)
- Investigation type
- Preliminary Evaluation The first stage of most defect investigations: NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation gathers basic information about a possible safety defect, including from the manufacturer.
- Status
- Closed August 8, 2008
- Opened
- Closed
- Vehicle or equipment manufacturer
- Toyota Motor Corporation
- Components
- Vehicle Speed Control; Vehicle Speed Control — Accelerator Pedal
- Vehicles and equipment
- 2004 Toyota Sienna
A recall appears here only when NHTSA's investigations file links one to the investigation; NHTSA's summary or record can name others.
NHTSA's summary
As NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation wrote it for Preliminary Evaluation PE08-025.
IN A JUNE 25, 2008, LETTER RESPONDING TO AN INFORMATION REQUEST FROM ODI, TOYOTA REPORTED AN APRIL 2003 UNWANTED ACCELERATION INCIDENT THAT OCCURRED DURING PRODUCTION DYNAMOMETER TESTING.ACCORDING TO THE LETTER THE INCIDENT WAS CAUSED BY A MISSING RETAINING CLIP THAT ALLOWED THE CENTER CONSOLE TRIM PANEL TO INTERFERE WITH (TRAP) THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL AFTER IT HAD BEEN DEPRESSED.IN THE AFTERMATH, TOYOTA REVIEWED THEIR MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND OTHER DATA AND CONCLUDED THIS WAS AN ISOLATED INCIDENT.AS A SECONDARY MEASURE IN JUNE 2003, TOYOTA CHANGED THE DESIGN OF THE TRIM PANEL TO ELIMINATE THE POTENTIAL FOR PEDAL INTERFERENCE IN THE EVENT THE RETAINING CLIP IS NOT PRESENT. DURING A JULY 2008 MEETING WITH ODI, TOYOTA DEMONSTRATED HOW AN UNRESTRAINED EARLY DESIGN LEVEL TRIM PANEL INTERACTS WITH THE ACCELERATOR AFTER PEDAL DEPRESSION.TOYOTA ALSO ADVISED THAT THEY WERE CONDUCTING A FIELD SURVEY TO EXAMINE PANEL RETENTION AND THAT PRELIMINARILY ONE VEHICLE HAD BEEN IDENTIFIED WITH A CONCERN. NHTSA'S VEHICLE RESEARCH AND TEST CENTER IS ALSO CONDUCTING A SURVEY OF SUBJECT VEHICLES; PRELIMINARILY TWO RESPONSES ALLEGE A CONCERN.BEFORE OPENING PE08-025, ODI STAFF ALSO FOUND A SUBJECT VEHICLE WITH A MISSING RETAINING CLIP DURING A FIELD EVALUATION.NOTE THAT ODI IS NO LONGER COUNTING THE SINGLE COMPLAINT THAT WAS IN THE OPENING RESUME FOR PE08-025 AS IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THE VEHICLE INVOLVED WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH THE SUBJECT TRIM PANEL. PE08-025 HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO AN ENGINEERING ANALYSIS (EA08-014) TO GATHER ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT HOW MANY SUBJECT VEHICLES MAY CURRENTLY HAVE ISSUES WITH THE RETAINING CLIP AND ASSESS THE FUTURE RISK OF PEDAL INTERFERENCE INCIDENTS DUE TO MISSING CLIPS.
Vehicles and equipment listed for this investigation
NHTSA's investigations file lists these vehicles and equipment for Preliminary Evaluation PE08-025. A listed model year means only that an investigation names it; it says nothing about any particular vehicle. Model years with a try.vin recall page link to that page's NHTSA investigations section.
Toyota
Toyota Sienna
What an NHTSA investigation is
NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) looks into possible safety defects in vehicles and equipment, often after owner complaints. An investigation usually starts as a Preliminary Evaluation, or as a Recall Query when it concerns whether an existing recall covers the right vehicles or fixes the problem, and ODI can upgrade it to a more detailed Engineering Analysis. A Defect Petition asks NHTSA to open an investigation, and Audit and Equipment Queries are administrative investigations into whether companies complied with federal vehicle safety requirements, such as reporting, recall and certification rules.
An open investigation is not a finding that a safety defect exists, and NHTSA can close one without a recall.
To see whether a specific vehicle has an open recall, enter its VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Toyota VIN check: decode a VIN to see its year, make and model.
Sources
NHTSA's investigation record for PE08-025
Investigation details come from NHTSA's investigations file, which try.vin imports once a day. The investigation types are described from the U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General's May 2023 report on NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation, NHTSA's petition rules (49 CFR Parts 552 and 557) and NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation procedures. How try.vin reads NHTSA investigations.