2008 Toyota Yaris Steering Problems

“My 4 year old 2008 Toyota Yaris with approximately 57,000 miles started making a clunking/banging sound when I would travel over small bumps or brake slowly. I took the car to my mechanic who looked at it and told me that I should take it to the Toyota dealer for repairs. He told me that a bolt holding the passenger lower suspension arm to the frame had corroded and sheared off. He said that if I continued driving it the entire passenger side suspension and wheel would likely break away from the car. …”

“Bought car with 99k miles. Noted a clunk in suspension. Decided to fix by process of elimination. Turned out it was a broken bolt that holds the control arm inside the subframe which is not accessible from the exterior. Steering was very off and this was a very dangerous issue that is clearly a defect from the manufacturer: the front subframe was poorly designed and the inner bolt that holds the long horizontal control arm bolt was improperly welded or the inner sub frame was made so water could get in and rust said bold/weld.”

“Energy level in battery was sufficient to start Yaris but insufficient to keep/get the electric power steering motor to operate correctly. Result: my 80 year old wife was able to get out parking lot but after she tried to make right hand turn she ended up in oncoming traffic lane, fortunately 2 cars were able to swirl to their right hand side, hence collision was avoided. Alternator must have kick in because power steering started to work again. Event occurred in mexico.”

“While driving the car at approximately 10 MPH the ABS and brake lights came on. At the same time the ABS felt like they engaged. After researching the problem online I found out that many users in the us and canada are having the same problem due to faulty ABS wheel speed sensors on the wheel hub. Due to the salt on the roads during the winter months, salt can enter the sensor and corrode the terminals. This is due to a poor seal between the connector and the wiring harness. When salt water enters the terminals it causes the ABS to act up. …”

“The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Yaris. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH, the power steering and brakes suddenly malfunctioned causing the contact to lose control of the vehicle and crash into an embankment. The air bags did not deploy. The contact suffered a left knee and back injury during the incident. A police report was filed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 67,000. Updated 08/19/14 updated 8/28/2017”