Hawaii's Toyota dealers will extend service department hours beginning this week to fix the sticky gas pedal problem that prompted last month's recall of 2.3 million vehicles, 8,000 of them on Hawaii roadways.

Shipments of the necessary part will begin arriving by the end of this week, and as soon as they arrive, “;we are going to start notifying customers and scheduling appointments,”; said Mark Fukunaga, chairman and chief executive of Servco Pacific Inc.

In addition to having its own dealerships, the company's Toyota Hawaii division distributes Toyota models to all Toyota dealerships statewide.

Servco Auto Honolulu service bays at 2850 Pukoloa St. will be operational 24 hours a day once the parts arrive, he said.

Toyota is providing training for local service personnel electronically via service bulletins, pictures “;and, I think, eventually videos,”; Fukunaga said yesterday.

Customers wanting additional information can call their dealership or check toyotahawaii.com or servco.com online.

“;We really want to apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and worry, but we want to assure them that we're doing everything possible to get this done and resolved as soon as possible,”; he said.

The Servco announcement followed an apology issued nationally yesterday by Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Toyota executives said a piece of steel about the size of a postage stamp will fix the gas pedal problem that led to the recall. Repairs will take about a half-hour and will start in a matter of days, the company said.

Toyota insisted the solution, rolled out six days after it temporarily stopped selling some of its most popular models, had been through rigorous testing and would solve the problem for the life of the car.

After a week in which Toyota drivers said they were worried about the safety of their cars and dealers were frustrated by a lack of information, Toyota said it would work to regain its customers' trust.

“;I know that we have let you down,”; Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said in a video address.

The repair involves installing a steel shim a couple of millimeters thick in the pedal assembly, behind the top of the gas pedal, to eliminate the excess friction between two pieces of the accelerator mechanism. In rare cases, Toyota says, that friction can cause the pedal to become stuck in the depressed position.

Toyota said car owners would be notified by mail and told to set up appointments with their dealers. It said cars already on the road would get priority over those on the lot.

———

Star-Bulletin reporter Erika Engle and the Associated Press contributed to this story.