You wanna see an engineering blunder?

Stick your head under the dash of your late model Tacoma and watch the gas pedal mechanism housing while you work the gas pedal with your hand.

Watch as the whole plastic body flexes like a spring every time you press the pedal, just before the pedal itself starts to move. This can't be good for precise throttle control or mechanical longevity. See how it twists and spreads and flexes out-of-plane of the applied force?

See how it's attached to the firewall with two little screws in tiny plastic tabs? See how poorly it seats to the surface of the firewall?

Don't ever kick this thing getting in the truck. It'll probably snap right off the firewall.

With all the flexing it does, I'm surprised we're not hearing about these things snapping off on high-mileage Tacomas.

 

Damn, this is a good example of places you shouldn't use cheap @ss plastic parts.
There are exceptable places to use plastic, and this isn't it!


EDIT: Thanks for letting us know.

 

Could be a part of the whole "sticking pedal" problem.

 

I am going to take a look tomorrow morning. There are certain things on the truck that I think Toyota could do better material wise.

 

No offense or anything as this is my 1st post but it looks like you are looking for things to knock Toyota about. Almost all of their cars and trucks from 05 on have this same basic setup and with all those vehicles on the road how many times have you heard about a gas pedal breaking off the firewall.

 

I completely agree with Caddmannq. I'm seeing stuff on my '09 that isn't the engineering quality that was present on my '96 Tacoma. I'm not looking for things to "knock" either - it's just a fact. My '09 is simply more of a "car" than a "truck", although it's got a bed on the back of it. The trade-off for adding all of the niceties people seem to want - power this, power that, electronic this, etc., is taking it's toll on quality.

I'll admit, I like power windows, but I don't need them. I had window cranks and manual locking doors on my '96 and had no problems... all the additional stuff we have now has contributed to LOWER quality in places, like Caddmannq has noted....

 

OMG you are so correct! Listen to this... So you know how I volunteered to have the intermediate steering shaft TSB done Right? Well this last Friday I took the shroud off to take photos before they swapped the part out.

While I was down there rotating the camera around I noticed the same thing. I could not believe how much the accelerator pedal assembly moved when depressed. I was alarmed by this and I am so glad you brought it up.

I seriously think that a another bolt should have been used on the left side of the assembly to help distribute the force when the pedal is depressed.

When I go back to the stealership later this week I will bring this to the attention of the mechanics and the service adviser as well.

I don't think they will offer any kind of fix but just to bring it up as an awareness factor. This is how the TSB's get done. It's all about people speaking up.

+1 Rep sent.

 

Damn... now I gotta check this out!

 

under-engineering? i dont think we need to look any further than our wimpy tailgates, to see an example. i'm sure it is a bean counter thing, about weight..

i'll keep an eye no the accel pedal.

 

do not get me wrong i love my truck but Toyota has lost it original vision of quality. they us way to much cheap plastic in almost everything they do. again i am a huge Toyota fan i just wish they go back the quality they were 10 years ago. my last Tacoma was a 95 with 300,000 miles on it with no major problems, and it i still ran like a champ!!!!!!!!!!

 

There is the pedal at normal resting position.


Heres the same pedal with pressure applied.

I didn't feel or see any weakness. The housing did not flex at all. The only movement was the pedal, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Is this the same housing that you have?

 

wait?? where is the throttle cable? just kidding..

 

I looked at the same thing in my truck and didn't see any flex.

Caddmannq....I truly appreciate your observation of the gas pedal and will look into this further. Thanks for bringing this to our attention....

 

No flexing or design issues that I could tell from the use of the gas pedal that I could see.

 

I took a look just now, mine is solid. It has the same set up as the picture Andrew H posted and it didn't flex at all. I pulled it out long the Z axis (toward the seat) and pulled it along the X axis (toward the break petal) and neither the arm nor the mount flexed at all.

 

Same. My shit feels solid.

 

mine doesnt flex either

 

Andrew, from the pics it appears that we have the same accelerator pedal assembly, (I'm going off memory). There are two bolts on the right hand side which mount the assembly to the firewall.

In order to visually demonstrate the movement of the assembly that Caddmannq and I have we would have to post a video to show it. Mine clearly shows signs of lateral movement when depressed with the palm of my hand.

As I stated earlier though, having a bolt on the left side would have made for a much stronger mount, than the two on the right hand side alone.

When I get my truck back I'll post a video. It could be several days though.

 

ok we know the problem...but how do we fix it??

 

hm... I wonder if it just weakens over time? My truck is a 2010 and I've only owned it a week. Was on the dealerships lot for a couple months though.