- Toyota recalls around 82,000 MY24-25 vehicles over digital gauge cluster problem.
- Warning indicators may disappear during startup, creating potential safety concerns.
- Toyota Land Cruiser and Mirai models, as well as the Lexus GX and UX are affected.
Hi-tech digital guage clusters don’t just look disappointingly blank to little kids peering inside parked cars in time-honored tradition. Sometimes, as Toyota and Lexus owners are discovering, they stay blank even when the rest of the car is primed for action.
The automakers are recalling more than 82,000 vehicles in the United States because their digital instrument clusters can fail to display important information when the vehicle starts up. The recall affects certain 2024 and 2025 model year Toyota Land Cruiser and Mirai models, as well as the Lexus GX and UX.
Related: 44,000 More Tundras Are Joining Toyota’s Self-Destructing V6 Turbo Recall
Because portions of the 12.3-inch combination gauge display positioned behind the steering wheel might stay blacked out, some important warning lights and indicators might not show, Toyota says. It didn’t elaborate on what kind of info drivers might miss out on, but it’s obviously something important because the recall notice explains that the failure means the affected cars don’t meet federal safety standards.
And leaving the legal stuff aside, if critical warnings aren’t displayed, drivers could be slower to react to developing problems, potentially increasing the risk of a crash or injury. Fortunately, the fix appears relatively straightforward, though not the OTA kind of straightforward. Toyota says dealers will update what it calls the “combination meter” software free of charge, and owner notification letters are expected to be mailed by late July.
It’s another example of how modern vehicles increasingly depend on software to perform tasks that once relied on simple mechanical hardware. Traditional gauges could certainly fail, but they rarely required patches, updates, recalls or dealer-installed software fixes.
And Toyota isn’t alone. Just recently, Mercedes-Benz found itself dealing with a similar issue affecting 144,000 vehicles across a huge portion of its lineup. In that case, software problems could trigger repeated system resets that temporarily caused instrument displays to go dark, potentially leaving drivers without access to speed, fuel, and warning information. That recall stretched across everything from C-Class sedans and GLC SUVs to AMG performance cars and SL roadsters.
