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Company will restart production Feb. 8 in North America to fix pedals.

Toyota plans to ship field-remedy kits to dealers this week and restart production Feb. 8 in North America to fix accelerator pedals that forced the automaker to recall 2.3 million U.S. vehicles.
Steel plates will be made in Japan to prevent sticking, said John Hanson, a spokesman. CTS Corp., maker of the original pedals, is delivering modified versions to Toyota’s North American plants, he said. Idled assembly lines will move again Feb. 8, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said in a Bloomberg television interview.
“The key right now is we know what the problem is,” Lentz said. “We have the fix. The kits are in shipment to the dealerships as we speak. They’ll be arriving in the next day or so. So we expect to be repairing customer cars with this fix later on this week.”
The world’s largest automaker on Jan. 21 recalled 2.3 million U.S. vehicles for pedals that may cause sudden acceleration. The action, coinciding with other recalls related to acceleration of about 5.4 million vehicles, led to a halt of U.S. sales and North American production of eight models and prompted Congress to schedule hearings on the matter.
Gerry O’Donnell, president of MotorWorld Toyota in Plains Township, said the dealership already offers service from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. “If need be we will go to Sundays,” he said.
Toyota’s costs for actions such as fixing models and idling plants may exceed $1.1 billion, Deutsche Bank analyst Kurt Sanger wrote in a report Monday.
The U.S. sales and assembly suspension on Jan. 26 includes top-selling Camry and Corolla cars and other models.