Lexus fuel leak took almost 2 years from diagnosis to recall, Toyota says

[DainBramaged]

Toyota Motor Corp. took almost two years to submit Wednesday's U.S. recall of Lexus models after the automaker's initial investigation of a potential gasoline leak failed to find defects in the cars' fuel-line components.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, voluntarily recalled around 245,000 Lexus IS and GS luxury cars in the U.S. to inspect and tighten fuel-pressure sensors.

More than 10,000 Lexus models sold in Europe are also part of the Japanese's automaker's global 1.7 million-car recall to fix a variety of fuel system, pressure sensors and spare-tire carriers related problems.

The first U.S. report of fuel odor was in March 2009, according to a letter Toyota sent Thursday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota investigated the case and two more reports in 2009, including one from the U.K., and “no abnormality in parts was found,” said Brian Lyons, a spokesman for the Japanese automaker's U.S. unit in Torrance, California.



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