05 Avalon Recall

[05Limited]

DETROIT (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling about 4,900 of its 2005 model-year Avalon sedans in the United States to fix a defect in the steering wheel column that could result in a loss of control of the vehicle, the company and U.S. safety regulators said on Monday.

"A portion of the steering column assembly may not have been welded correctly," Toyota spokesman John McCandless said.

Has anyone heard more of the details about this yet? Just wondering if Toyota has a VIN number range for those that need to be recalled. The date on this article was 5/23/05 so I would not expect that anyone has received a recall notice from Toyota yet.

[xpeed]

Ouch. I would get that checked out no matter which VIN is affected. I surely wouldn't like to lose the steering control on my car.

[johnd]

05,

I called Toyota this morning. The best I could get from them was that 'the letters' are to be mailed tomorrow. I asked about the VIN s effected, she didn't have that info.
I also asked about the CD. She said that I should talk to the dealer as they have them. The only ones she said they had there were the ones they used when we called in about something.
John D

[johnd]

05,

I just looked up the recall information. The letter that Toyota sent to the NSB.
The VIN range is shown different than what the window sticker shows, but it can be deciphered. Under VBS it shows BK36B and under VIS is shows 5U001099-5U006875. The mfg dates are 16 DEC 04 thru 22 FEB 05. I take it that the 4T1 preceding the BK etc is ignored for this purpose. At any rate, these numbers are all before mine.
Hope it helps you.
John D

[05Limited]

Thanks for the research John!
I'm not sure when my car was built, but my VIN sequence number is 5U028023. I assume that means they have made well over 28,000 Avalons so far. I haven't seen many on the road yet.

[avalon driver]

Look at the label on driver's door opening and it has the built date.