2024-2025 Toyota Tacoma owners will want to pay attention to this new recall.
Some variants of the fourth-generation Tacoma may experience a substantial safety risk with their rear brake hoses becoming damaged and leaking, according to a report the automaker filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). According to the newly available recall report, as many as 106,061 trucks could experience accelerated brake hose wear and failure through mud and dirt buildup under certain conditions.
Toyota says this only happens with some configurations of the new Tacoma: Specifically four-wheel drive models with 16-inch rear brakes and 17-inch wheels. The company says it “continues to investigate” model year 2024 and 2025 trucks with rear-wheel drive and a combination of 16-inch brakes with 17- or 18-inch wheels. Other four-wheel drive models with 16-inch brakes and 18-inch wheels are also under scrutiny, but the recall does not yet extend to those configurations. Models with 17-inch brakes have a different brake system design, and are not part of the recall campaign.
In mid-July 2024, dealers began to report that rear brake hoses were leaking on brand-new Tacoma trucks with the 16-inch brake/17-inch wheel combination. With this specific setup, the clearances between the brake hoses and rear wheels are such that mud and dirt buildup on the inside of the wheels (especially while off-roading) can contact the lines, damaging and wearing them down over time. Obviously, a resulting brake fluid leak would reduce braking performance and dramatically increase stopping distances, risking a crash.
Toyota noted through the NHTSA manufacturer portal that “1%” of the 106,000-strong recall population are impacted. However, in this context, the company says it is unable to provide an accurate estimate of how many vehicles are actually affected — largely since it boils down to the driving habits of individual owners and mud and dirt wearing down the brake lines, rather than the actual parts being defective. So, the answer to how many Tacomas have problems with their rear brake lines is “unknown”.
How does Toyota plan to fix the problem?
If you own the latest Tacoma built within the following time frames, you’ll want to keep a close eye on this recall:
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California (TMMBC) between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025 or;
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Guanajuato (TMMGT) between January 2, 2024 and January 13, 2025
The automaker will notify impacted owners of the safety risk of damaged brake hoses by mail between March 24 and April 7, and it has already notified dealers of the problem as of February 6. In instances where the affected Tacomas have damaged brake lines, dealer technicians will replace both rear hoses with “improved” ones, free of charge under the trucks’ existing limited warranty coverage. In rare cases where owners’ trucks are beyond the warranty mileage, Toyota will reimburse them for any out-of-pocket costs to fix the problem.
2024 and newer Tacomas have already experienced a few different issues since their initial rollout. Our particular truck had a front differential failure while off-roading last winter, while other trucks needed new transmissions under a technical service bulletin (neither of those have escalated to a full-blown recall, at time of writing).
