Gregory,

As I posted previously, both my service manager (who checked my VIN) and the service rep (who took the car in) told me beforehand that my car would get the ECU flash for BTO, but when I picked up the car this had not been done and the same service rep explained that they had been wrong about the ECU flash and that this was not being done on any hybrid cars. My receipt was consistent with no flash being done.

Please report back on your final experience.

Jack

 

OK here is my report.
Yesterday and this morning before I brought the car in I fiddled with applying throttle and then applying the brake while maintaining or increasing throttle pressure. Even with the pedal pressed half way with moderate pressure I was able to cause the ICE to increase RPM and fight the braking effort. I think.
After the 90L Safety Recall the behavior is different. I think.
Trying to reproduce my earlier test the engine RPM now drops noticeably and remains reduced as long as I have brake pressure. Even increasing throttle does not increase engine RPM or give the feeling I am fighting the brake. The engine RPM sounds like it is near idle. I think I did this in an objective way.
That said, the service ticket does not say anthing about a ECU Flash/Programming.
Specifically it lists only the following:
07-10 HV Camry Floor Units: 1.6
Check for Safety Reccall --90L-- Hybrid Camry
Factory Modification:
1) Accelerator pedal and floor surface modification
2) Remove the sound deadening material
3) Inspect front carpet/floor mat. clean as appropriate
99) Time 1.6

1 PK90LC <<< ???
1 04009-52106 Tibia Pad Assy
1 78118-41010 Stopper, Accelera

 

Gregory,

Thanks very much for very full report.

Your ticket reads precisely like mine and your experience is quite similar to mine, except:

When I received my ticket I asked to see the service rep, and I questioned why the ECU flash was nor mentioned. His reply was that this was because it was not done because it was not to specified be done on the hybrid cars and that his earlier statement that it would be done was just wrong.

Also similar to your experience, I too retested for brake throttle functionality after the recall, not because I thought that anything had changed but because the service rep was so insistent that the car already had some BTO functionality and I just wanted to find out. My after the recall test did result in BTO, even sufficient to negate further accelerator application, but I must note that I slammed on the brake much more aggressively than I had in previous trials which had shown me inadequate BTO with subsequent accelerator pedal application.

I'm left convinced that the TCH does have an inherent BTO functionality that is pretty darned good in most situations, but that it is not sufficient for some combinations and sequences of brake and accelerator pedal pressures, and that those troublesome combinations include what happenes with the trapped mat situations.

And that is why it makes sense for Toyota to do the pedal and floor modifications in spite of the inherent BTO.

Jack

Further note: Yesterday I had the opportunity to make a measurement on my friend's unmodified TCH. his car has about 2 inches of clearance between the bottom of accelerator pedal and the floor. Mine (as modified in the recall) now has about 3 inches.

 

Not to nitpick, but since the hybrid engine is designed to shut down unless needed, wouldn't you expect engine RPM to be zero (not "near idle") like it is if you rev in park or neutral, with a properly designed BTO?

 

If there is one thing I've learned in my 7 years of driving Toyota Hybrids is the ICE has a mind of its own. There is no correlation between engine RPMs (or lack of them) and the amount of motive force being delivered to the wheels.
On one of more occasions I've noticed this behavior with the car in park:

1) ICE currently off, I press the accelerator, the ICE turns on immediately but remains in idle regardless of accelerator pedal position. When I release the accelerator the ICE may or may not shut off but usually turns off again after a short while.

2) ICS is currently idling, I press the accelerator, the ICE remains at idle regardless of accelerator pedal position. When I release the accelerator pedal the engine (typically) remains on until it decides to shut off.

 

Final update to my 90L recall experience.
I spoke with the Service Dept's Head Honcho (not the service rep but the service manager) by phone this morning asking about the discrepancy between what the service rep said and what the work ticket said.
His explanation agrees with what others have posted in this thread. The ECU Flash is NOT being performed on Hybrids for the floor mat recalls. Only the pedal modification and padding modification and all weather mat replacement (if applicable).
Furthermore he said "they are assuming" the BTO is already incorporated in the hybrid lines since they are not instructed to perform any computer flashes for the 90L recall on TCHs and Priuses.
This begs the point as to why I perceived a difference in behavior with the brake overriding (or not) the throttle before and after the 90L recall was performed. For that I have no explanation.

 

~fully expecting to get blasted for this, but do you think the TCH was designed by a team of women?

"...motive force..." you don't usually hear that term used outside of the pages of Atlas Shrugged. Are you ... enlightened?

 

Only slightly.
I (in a past life) worked for a manufacturing company that supplied components to the land transportation industry (trains, buses etc.)
Many were used on Diesel Locomotives as speed regulators, wheel slip controllers, dead man controls, event recorders, speed-o-meters etc. The terms like "traction motors", "motive power", "motive force" etc. just became second nature in the business. Since my short term memory is just about shot I pulled the term out of long term memory and it "just seemed appropriate" in my usage context.
For those who don't care to Goggle the term "motive force" is just "the force that moves something/someone". I think it goes back as far as Isaac Newton (whom I knew personally btw ) but I could be wrong on that.

 

The best $9 you will ever spend!

 

Thanks to Gregory for posting this update. At this point, his experience and mine (with the recall as well as with pre- and post-recall BTO satisfaction trials) are quite similar.

(Re. the rest of our experience, I usually deny that I'm old enough to have known Newton personally, though I'm having increasing difficulty selling that.)