Toyota Slammed with New Engine Defect Class Action Lawsuit

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A class action lawsuit was filed against Toyota Motor North America Inc. this week by car owners alleging that they were sold vehicles with defective engines that don’t maintain oil levels causing engine failure.

Lead plaintiff, Lekha Keister, filed the class action lawsuit against Toyota in New Jersey federal court. In the filing she alleges that the defective 2AZ-FE engine does not allow for proper use of oil and causes the engine to burn oil.

“Plaintiff and the other Class Members reasonably expected that their Class Vehicles would not experience the Defect during foreseeable and normal usage, including, without limitation, the expectation that the Class Vehicles would not require unreasonably frequent oil changes/additions between scheduled oil changes and that the Class Vehicles would not suffer from a dangerous defect that could cause the Class Vehicles to unexpectedly seize during operation, thereby causing the potential for accidents and injuries,” Keister says in her Toyota class action lawsuit.

Keister also argues in her class action that the defective engine is a safety concern. “The defect is unreasonably dangerous to consumers because it can cause engine failure while the class vehicles are in operation at any time and under any driving conditions or speeds, thereby exposing the class vehicle drivers, their passengers and others who share the road with them to serious risk of accidents and injury,” she says.

Keister alleges that Toyota sedans, including the Toyota Camry HV, Corolla, Matrix, RAV4, Solara, Scion tC and Scion xB, marketed between the years 2007 and 2011 carry the defective 2AZ-FE engine. Keister alleges that the car manufacturer knew about the defective engine, but continued to sell vehicles with defective engines, pointing to a technical service bulletin Toyota sent to dealers in 2011.

Keister argues Toyota’s continued sale of vehicles with the allegedly defective engine constitute violations of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, fraudulent concealment, violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranties and negligence. In her class action, Keister also requests an injunction on Toyota, that the court require Toyota conduct a corrective advertising campaign to alert the public of the defect, pay damages and restitution to plaintiff and class members in the amounts paid to repair the vehicles, and reimburse the plaintiff and class members for the loss of value to their vehicles.

This lawsuit follows a similar class action lawsuit filed against Toyota in the Northern District of California in April of this year. In that case a group of plaintiffs from five different states allege that a defect in the design of pistons in a four-cylinder engine used in many of the Toyota’s vehicles as well as its Scion subsidiary leads to excessive oil consumption and the potential for serious accidents.

Lead plaintiff, Lekha Keister, is represented by Bradley K. King, Tina Wolfson, Robert Ahdoot and Theodore W. Maya of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC.

The New Jersey Toyota Oil Consumption Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Lekha Keister, et al. v. Toyota Motor North America Inc., et al., Case No. 2:14-cv-05459, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

The plaintiffs in the California class action lawsuit are represented by class action lawsuit lawyers Jae J. Kim and Richard D. McCune Jr. of McCune Wright LLP

The California Toyota Oil Consumption Defect Class Action Lawsuit is April Lax, et al. v. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al., Case No. 14-cv-01490, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.