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Toyota Recall: 803,000 Vehicles Pulled Back Because of Air Conditioning Condenser Issue

Oct 18, 2013 10:08 AM EDT | By Justin Stock

Toyota is recalling 803,000 vehicles due to an issue with their air conditioning condenser units the company said in a press release Thursday.

The vehicles include the car company's 2012 to 2013 Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, and Venza.

According to the company, water from the air conditioning condenser unit housing could leak onto the airbag control module and cause a short in a circuit, along with the vehicles' airbag warning light.

Some cases have been reported where the vehicles' power steering does not work properly especially if a wire in the "airbag control module" is broken.

The company said it will inform affected customers to bring back their vehicles to a dealer so they can be fixed.

This will entail workers putting sealant to stop the water leak, and a covering over the air conditioning's housing seam situated on top of the module.

The latest recall is the company's third, and the newest development since Toyota last recalled 615,000 Sienna minivans last month because of an issue with their levers where they can move out of park mode BBC News reported.

Over 780,000 RAV4 and Lexus HS 250h vehicles were also pulled back because an issue with their suspensions, after it was not fixed last year. In total, six million vehicles have been recalled so far this year, including 2.2 million in the most recent weeks.

"Repeated recalls definitely dent the image of any carmaker," Vivek Vaidya, an auto analyst with consulting firm Frost and Sullivan told BBC. "If you have one big recall, it is still manageable. But if (a company) calls back different vehicle models at different times for unrelated issues, customers tend to have a re-think about your quality assurance. And if the problem involves airbag deployment. It becomes a serious issue."

24 small accidents have also been reported.

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