Philippine Corolla Crosses unaffected by brake recall

On May 25, 2023, Toyota from down under issued a recall for gasoline-powered Corolla Cross models produced between February 2022 and April 2023 for a fault in the car’s electronic parking brake software. 

According to Toyota Australia, the affected vehicles might encounter a potential issue where the brake actuator assembly might erroneously detect an overcurrent state in the electronic parking brake (EPB) actuator, causing it to enter a failsafe mode. This mode triggers the malfunction indicator lamp (MIL), displays the message "Parking Brake Malfunction, Visit Your Dealer" on the multi-information display (MID), and prevents the engagement or disengagement of the EPB. If the EPB cannot be engaged and the warnings from the EPB MIL and MID are disregarded, and the vehicle is parked on an incline without being placed in "Park," there is a risk of the vehicle rolling away.

According to Toyota Australia, the solution to this kink in the car’s system is an update to the skid control electronic control unit (ECU) software. The whole process takes about an hour to accomplish. In order to find out if models in the Philippines are affected by the same problem, Autoindustriya investigated the matter and contacted Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) to ask if there are any Corolla Cross models afflicted with the same problem with the parking brake. 

In its response, Toyota Motor Philippines has confirmed that none of the vehicles in the country are affected by the EPB recall happening over in Australia. This is because the local models of Corolla Cross do not feature an electronic parking brake. Instead, the Corolla Cross vehicles sold in this region are equipped with a foot parking brake. Since foot-operated parking brakes function using a cable like a conventional handbrake, Filipino Corolla Cross owners will not have to worry about their beloved car taking a solo trip.