Class Action Says Jan. 2020 Toyota, Lexus Denso Fuel Pump Recall Left Out Affected 2018-2019 Vehicles [UPDATE]

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A proposed class action lawsuit aims to expand a January 2020 recall of nearly 700,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles equipped with a defective low-pressure Denso fuel pump and made between August 2018 and January 2019. The suit out of New York’s Eastern District claims that despite the extent of the recall, all 2018-2019 Toyota-made vehicles are troubled by the same low-pressure fuel pump problem and should have been included in the recall.

According to Toyota’s statement on the recall, approximately 690,000 of the following vehicle models were equipped with a fuel pump that could prematurely stop operating, and cause an engine to run rough or a vehicle to stall out, during the course of normal use: 

The lawsuit alleges, however, that “the same dangerous condition” presented by the supposedly defective fuel pump exists in all 2018-2019 Toyota-manufactured vehicles. Affected vehicles are equipped with a fuel pump with a part number prefix of 23220- or 23221-, the suit says.

With regard to the defect itself, the suit explains that the faulty fuel pumps’ premature failure, as stated by Toyota, is linked to a defectively designed plastic impeller, the component within the pump that spins and generates negative pressure. This negative pressure pulls a vehicle’s fuel from the gas tank up through the fuel lines and into the fuel filter before the gasoline is delivered to an engine’s fuel injectors, the lawsuit says. According to the case, the plastic impeller in Toyota’s defective fuel pumps can deform and become inoperable due to excessive fuel absorption.

As explained in the complaint, fuel pump failure can put a driver and occupants in danger in the event a vehicle suddenly stalls or experiences and engine shutdown. At any rate, the suit says, diminished capacity with regard to the ability to accelerate a vehicle, a potential symptom of a fuel pump problem, poses a significant safety risk to drivers and those with whom they share the road. Once a fuel pump has failed completely, a vehicle becomes totally inoperable, the case mentions.

According to the suit, while Toyota possessed knowledge of the fuel pump defect for some time, the automaker did not disclose to the public that a number of its vehicle models were inherently unsafe. To date, the suit says, Toyota has not identified a fix for the fuel pump problem, relaying that “[the] final corrective repair action is still under study.”

“Egregiously,” the lawsuit says, Toyota has similarly failed to recommend that drivers keep affected vehicle models off the road. Given the level of danger presented by the fuel pump defect, Toyota “at a minimum” should have offered drivers free loaner vehicles “until they could devise and implement a fix or take other action to protect consumers’ safety,” the complaint reads.

The case alleges consumers have been deprived of the benefit of their bargain by purchasing or leasing Toyota and Lexus vehicles that, despite being advertised as reliable, safe modes of transportation, are inherently unsafe due to the fuel pump defect.