Toyota DPF savaged by expert technical report

UPDATE 23/10/2020 7:00pm: Toyota Australia has responded to today's court proceedings. See below for the full statement.

23/10/2020 6:00pm: A technical report that savages the diesel particulate filter (DPF) at the heart of a class action against Toyota as not designed to function “in all reasonably expected conditions” in Australia has been adopted into evidence by the federal court judge hearing the case.

In an interlocutory hearing in the federal court in Sydney this afternoon, Justice Lee said adopting the report with only minor alterations was “an implicit finding of fact” in its contents.

The report was prepared by American former General Motors engineer, David P Garrett, who previously served as the company’s director of global vehicles emissions compliance. He described the DPF as “defective”.

“The core defect was that the DPF System was not designed to function effectively during all reasonably expected conditions of normal operation and use in the Australian market,” Garrett wrote.

“The design defect was comprised of both mechanical defects and defective control logic and associated software calibrations.”

A DPF is designed to trap pollutants and soot from the diesel engine. Periodically it heats up and burns off noxious particles and then regenerates.

Toyota is defending the class action law suit over the DPF fitted to both the 1GD-FTV 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine and the 2GD-FTV 2.4-litre.

The two Toyota DPFs have not always regenerated automatically and have also been prone to blowing unburnt fuel in the form of white smoke and emitting a noxious odour during regeneration.

Garrett said “countermeasures” introduced by Toyota – among them a manual burn-off switch introduced in 2018 – were “ineffective” and in some cases caused the DPF to malfunction.

However, he said countermeasures introduced with the most recent HiLux upgrade this year appear to have been successful.

Toyota has sold more than 300,000 examples of the 1GD in Australia since it first appeared in 2015 in the Prado SUV. It was rolled out in the eighth-generation HiLux and its SUV sister model, the Fortuner, in 2016. The 2GD is fitted to entry-level models in the HiLux range.

The Toyota DPF class action has been filed by Bannister Law and Gilbert + Tobin, on behalf of HiLux, Fortuner and Prado owners. They accuse Toyota of misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct.

The affected Toyotas were purchased between October 2015 and April 2020. The HiLux has been Australia’s top-selling vehicle for the last four years.

The technical report was ordered by Justice Lee in June and Garret was selected as ‘referee’ from a list submitted by the law firms representing both the claimants and Toyota.

Garrett investigated the issue in the context of questions set by the court in regard to issues such as reliability and maintenance costs.

One consolation for Toyota was Garrett was unable to prove the DPF design faults contributed to an increase in fuel consumption.

Bannister Law founder and principal Charles Bannister was predictably pleased by Garrett’s finding.

“This is an important step towards obtaining compensation for all of those people who were sold defective cars they were told were 'unbreakable', who missed days off work while their cars were at the mechanics and who had to sit in at the traffic lights in clouds of foul-smelling white smoke,” he said.

Justice Lee said mediation would not take place in the case until 2021 and a court hearing – if it gets that far – will not happen until late 2021.

The class action is still open to owners of the affected vehicle. Details are on the Bannister Law website.

Toyota Australia issued the following statement to carsales after today's court hearing:

"Toyota has been proactive about the fact that some customers have experienced a DPF issue and we have implemented a number of customer-focussed and technical remedies to assist.

"Toyota has worked tirelessly and transparently since becoming aware of concerns to find the best resolution for our customers - we are confident that the most recent countermeasure will remedy the DPF issue, as supported by the Independent Expert’s Report recently adopted by the Federal Court.

"We have an existing Customer Service Exercise (CSE) underway for DPF. A CSE involves proactively contacting all owners of potentially affected vehicles and giving them the opportunity to present their vehicle at their convenience and have the CSE performed free of charge. This means that, all customers with potentially affected vehicles have been contacted by letter and are requested to make contact with their closest/preferred Toyota Dealer.

"In addition to the CSE, as part of our commitment to ongoing customer satisfaction, we have extended our warranty on the DPF system to 10 years from the first delivery date of the vehicle when new, with no limitation on kilometres.

"This warranty extension applies to customers who may have experienced an issue with the DPF system which may present as substantial white smoke discharged during the regeneration process or the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) may illuminate and in some cases, as a precautionary measure, engine power may be reduced (‘limp home’ mode).

"We reiterate our commitment, as always, to helping our customers with any questions or concerns they have about their vehicle. We encourage any Toyota owners with questions or concerns about their DPF to contact their closest or preferred Toyota Dealer (www.toyota.com.au/find-a-dealer) or the Guest Experience Centre on 1800 869 682 (Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5:30pm AEST). Alternatively, customers can find out more via a comprehensive DPF FAQ on the Toyota website (www.toyota.com.au/dpfinformation).