NHTSA recall 08V181000
Seat Belts · Toyota Motor Corporation
Details
What's wrong: Affects vehicles equipped with a third row seat. These vehicles fail to conform to the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard no. 208, "occupant crash protection." The non-driver designated seating positions (dsp) on these vehicles is equipped with seat belt assemblies that have a feature that converts the retractor from an emergency locking retractor (Elr) to an automatic locking retractor (alr). The…
Why it matters: However, for the two third row dsp's on these vehicles, the alr mode deactivates before the webbing is fully retracted, so that it will not lock when certain rear-facing crs's that have a short seat belt routing path are installed in the vehicle. This can allow the seat belt webbing to spool out…
The fix: Dealers will install a newly designed seat belt component free of charge. The recall is expected to begin on or about December 18, 2008.
Affected vehicles on MotorDeets
All model years NHTSA lists
2008 Toyota Highlander, 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid.
Recalls can cover only some VINs. Check yours on NHTSA's official recall page for 08V181000.
Source: NHTSA recall records. Summary shortened; the official notice has the full text.