Toyota will be recalling about 17,000 Lexus HS250h vehicles due to risk of excessive fuel leakage during a rear-end impact. Okay, Toyota, this isn’t funny anymore.

The NHTSA ran tests of the car, striking it from the rear end with a deformable barrier. Under certain conditions, there would be excessive fuel leakage from the fuel tank, and we all know what that means: fire risk.

Under in-house testing, Toyota was unable to recreate this, and so they are working on figuring out what has caused this and how to fix it. Until then, they will halt sales of the HS. We’ll let you know when a fix is worked out.

Press Release

Toyota Files Noncompliance Information Report on Certain 2010 Lexus HS 250h Vehicles

TORRANCE, Calif., June 25, 2010 – Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today filed a Noncompliance Information Report (NCIR) with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), informing the agency of the company’s intent to conduct a voluntary safety recall of potentially 17,000 2010 model year Lexus HS 250h vehicles to address a compliance issue with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 301.

As part of its annual compliance testing program, the NHTSA recently conducted a test of the 2010 model year HS 250h.  The test involved striking the vehicle with a deformable barrier from the rear at approximately 50 mph.  The vehicle is struck by a moving deformable barrier with a 70 percent overlap.  As part of the test, the vehicle was then rotated on its longitudinal axis incrementally to each successive increment of 90 degrees.  During the rotation, the vehicle exhibited fuel spillage that exceeded the requirement in the standard.

During vehicle development, Lexus tested the HS 250h using the same protocol and found the vehicles to comply fully with the FMVSS 301.  Lexus is currently working to identify the reason for the different test results and the cause of this noncompliance.

“Even though our own testing of the Lexus HS 250h shows full compliance with federal fuel system integrity standards, we are working intensely to duplicate the noncompliance issue that the NHTSA identified and to determine the reason behind the different test results,” said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota chief quality officer for North America.

At the present time, Lexus has not identified a remedy to address this issue, but it is working hard to do so promptly and will notify owners as soon as one is developed.  Until then, as required by federal law, dealers will not deliver any new vehicles in their inventory that are covered by this NCIR until remedied.

Detailed information about this recall is available through Lexus Customer Satisfaction at 1-800-25 LEXUS or 1-800-255-3987 or at www.lexus.com/recall.

Source: Toyota