Halloween spiders cause Toyota car recall

It sounds like a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong, but Toyota has recalled almost 1 million of its cars because they are at serious risk from spiders.

Over 850,000 cars built for the American market in 2012 and 2013 are being recalled because if a spider builds its web behind their dashboards, there is a risk of unexpected airbag deployment and power steering failure.

According to Toyota, the webs can:

…create a blockage in a drainage tube coming from the air conditioning condenser. That can cause water to drip down onto an airbag control module, causing a short circuit. That, in turn, could cause the airbag warning light to light up on the dashboard and it could even cause the driver’s side airbag to deploy, something that happens with explosive force. In some cases, there could also be a loss of power-steering force.

The breakdown recovery service offered by the ETA has never been called out to a car damaged by a spider, but mis-fuelling, broken keys and recovery after a collision are all covered as standard at no extra cost. One year’s cover costs from less than £30.