2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Steering Problems

“My car has the same problem as described here and in many places online and Toyota refused to include my vehicle for recall. The problem as described by NHTSA as follows report receipt date: sep 04, 2013 NHTSA campaign number: 13v396000 component(s): hybrid propulsion system all products associated with this recall expand details close 12 associated documents expand manufacturer: Toyota motor engineering & manufacturing summary: Toyota is recalling certain model year 2006-2010 Highlander Hybrid vehicles manufactured february 16, 2005, through july 29, 2010; and model year 2006-2008 lexus…”

“There is a clicking sound in the steering column, especially when the car is in motion, and worse if turning the steering wheel while going over a bump. Feels as if something is loose in the steering system. Almost feels like a loose cv joint. This has been going on since I picked the car up from the dealer. The dealer tells me that this is a characteristic of the vehicle . Problem has been persisting, and I showed this to another dealer, who told me that Toyota knows about the problem, and is working on it. …”

“Both my wife and I have noticed the steering in our 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid progressively getting worse. We hear knocking and noises coming out of turns and the steering is much looser than when we bought the vehicle. The knocking began about a eight months ago and has become more and more frequent. It first made the strange knock coming out of a slow right hand turn, but now it does it coming out of a turn in either direction. Sometimes it will make the noise during a quick acceleration. Like many of the same complaints, we to can feel the knock is the steering wheel. …”

“I have a 2008 Highlander Hybrid and ever since a few hundred miles, there has been a knock in my steering wheel. It is intermittent, but mostly happens when the car is coming out of a turn, usually a right turn. As the wheel comes back to center (turning counter-clockwise) there a momentary knock which is audible and can be felt through the steering wheel. My dealer initially replaced the intermediate steering shaft after I noticed many people on the Toyota forums reporting the same problem. At any rate, the problem came back after 500 miles of the 1st repair. …”

“Abs pump and actuator failure. Warning lights on the dash buzzer, and nearly complete loss of stopping power, reduced fuel economy. We own a 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid which confirmed by the dealer has a 100% failure rate which is the exact failure previously recalled on 2006-07 highlander hybrids, and 08-09 camry hybrids. This failure throws the same code, same symptoms, same parts as recalled on previous years, and same years in other models however Toyota some how got away with not recalling 2008 highlander models. …”