December 7, 2006
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Toyota Motor Corp.'s 2004 and 2005 Sienna minivans with power rear liftgates after reports of 14 injuries when the liftgates unexpectedly closed.
The probe involves 142,418 of the minivans and began December 1. Federal regulators want to determine if gas in the high-pressure struts that open and close the liftgates may leak because of a faulty seal.
Toyota is conducting its own internal investigation and is cooperating with NHTSA according to a Toyota spokeswoman.
In a related matter, the Japanese automaker reported that it will ask owners of 159,100 2001-02 RAV4 SUVs and 60,700 2001-03 four-cylinder Highlander SUVs to bring their vehicles to dealers to fix a faulty check engine light.
The engine check light tends to come on for no explainable reason and can cause a vehicle to fail a safety or emissions inspection in many states. The faulty lights do not affect the vehicles' operation, however.
In all, 362,000 Toyota vehicles are involved in the NHTSA and Toyota investigations and recalls.
