This recall affects 2024-2025 four-wheel drive Toyota Tacomas fitted with 17-inch wheels and 16-inch rear brakes.
Toyota has recently announced a recall for certain 2024 and 2025 Tacoma pickups in North America, due to the possibility of mud and dirt build-up wearing a hole in their rear brake lines. This recall particularly pertains to four-wheel-drive Tacomas with 17-inch wheels and 16-inch rear brakes, and is presently said to affect 106,061 trucks.
Now according to the recall notice filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Toyota found that poor wheel clearance on select models can cause mud and dirt build-up on the interior of their rear wheels. And over time, the gathered dirt or mud has the potential to wear through the too-close brake line and cause a brake fluid leak, which in turn may decrease stopping power and increase the chance of a crash.
Owners of the impacted trucks will be notified by mail, but can check the NHTSA website themselves to see if their Tacos are affected. All impacted owners will be asked to bring their trucks to an authorised dealership that will replace the affected brake hoses free of charge. Dealerships have already been notified of the recall, with owner notification letters to be sent out between March and April.
NHTSA documents show that Toyota began investigating the issue after receiving dealer reports regarding rear brake hose leaks last summer. As of January 29th, the automaker was aware of five technical field reports and 12 warranty claims related to the issue described in the recall.
Investigations performed by Toyota did not find any problems in the manufacturing process, so it began to review the rear brake design. The automaker subsequently discovered that the clearance between the 16-inch brakes and 17-inch wheels is less than other combinations, as well as learning that the brake hose routing on the 16-inch brakes differed from the 17-inch brakes, with the hose on the former positioned outside the rear calliper profile.
Incidentally, Toyota had indeed managed to replicate the mud and dirt build-up issue on four-wheel drive trucks with the 16-inch brakes and 17-inch wheels. It couldn’t however reproduce the problem on two-wheel-drive trucks, or those fitted with 18-inch wheels, but the automaker is continuing to investigate the issue.
