Yaris Steering - Does Yours Return To Centre Properly?

[MyEvilTwin]

My girlfriend's recently bought an '03 Yaris 1.0 T3 and it's got the wierdest steering anyone (who I trust) has ever felt in any car. The garage it came from have concluded with "it must just be a Yaris thing, it's safe to drive". We're not buying this and I want to ask a forum full of actual Yaris owners about it.

On a test drive I commented that the steering was very light. I've felt very light steering before, but I didn't twig that it was in fact not behaving normally on the limited short drive and didn't tag it as a Bad Thing.

The steering doesn't return to centre itself. You can leave the wheel at as much as a 90 degree turn in either direction and it won't come back on its own. Beyond that it will return, but VERY lightly, so that in the course of normal driving round town it needs to be purposefuly turned rather than it pushing its way back through your hands. When on a roundabout, the only time I've ever felt the kind of wheel feedback as this gives is when entering an understeer.

It makes for a car that I'd say is a bit tricky to drive confidently. It has to be watched. It feels a little skittish at high speed but not terribly, the real trouble is town driving where you have to undo the wheel actively from turns. A pro driver may say that you should do that anyway, but let's be honest, few people positively feed the wheel when leisurely driving in town. :-)

We had an unused RAC vehicle inspection credit, so we had it checked over. This was aftr buying it, because I didn't drive it for a little while after she bought it and being a New Driver, Jules knew no better. The RAC guy noted the steering issue and recommended it be fixed as a safety concern. Coincidentally, when he arrived to check it he said to me "ooh, a Yaris. I've done loads of these. We've got a contract with Toyota and I usually get them in this area."

I'd say that's enough to tell us that if this was "a Yaris thing" he'd be in an ideal position to say "It's quite common". He'd never seen anything like it before, and made a couple of suggestions as to the cause since the visible steering and suspension components were all in excellent condition. Steering rack, or possibly non-standard tyre size fitted were his best guesses.

So back to the garage it went, and I sh*t you not, they set the tracking and gave her it back. I was told to my face "it may just be a thing with smaller cars". Rubbish, driven loads of cars and I've never felt anything remotely like this.

Back in it went the next day, with the instruction not to return it til it was fixed.

At a loss to find any suspect component, they allegedly submitted it to the local Toyota dealership (although in our town that's a Arnold Clark with track record of shenanigans in the maintenance dept) who advised replacing the steering rack.

The dealer replaced it, no difference. All possible parts were taken out and checked and still no culprit could be found. They replaced the front struts. At my request when tyre size came up again, standard sizes were fitted to eliminate that, and still no difference.

Again allegedly the Toyota dealer was able to test a similar year and model Yaris and told the dealer that they did indeed observe the same steering looseness, thus both dealers concluded that "it's a Yaris thing". I have my doubts folks, because if it was, a Toyota dealer would have seen it before so why would they initially recommend a rack replacement? And both of them must have thought it was Wrong enough to merit fixing it in the first place.

Oh, also, I asked a pack of no less than four gathered salesmen at an independent Toyota dealership in a nearby town about this, and they all reckoned it was suspicious and they're never seen or heard of such a thing. I know the salesguys might not be mechanics, but out of four I'm fairly sure somebody would have recognised it if it were a common thing.

We've got it back now as Nothing More We Can Do. So I thought the best thing to do would be to poll people who have a Yaris of that type and see if anyone is able to give any weight to the dealers' reckoning that It's A Yaris Thing.

So can you help me out please?

If you've read this far, could you please post a reply whether you do or don't have steering that sounds like my description - it'll be just as helpful to hear from anyone who doesn't have this as anyone who does!

Cheers folks! :-)

[crazyman50000]

Can't say Ive noticed the problem in mine...

Actually it does very much return to centre while driving as I was sat at some lights waiting to turn left round a bend, let the Yaris move forward slowly and the wheel turned.

I don't know what the prblem is with yours though...only that it DOES sound like a problem.

So basically if you're on a car park and turn 90degrees left and go forward, it doesnt straighten out? Because mine does...

[zeemmax]

My girlfriend's recently bought an '03 Yaris 1.0 T3 and it's got the wierdest steering anyone (who I trust) has ever felt in any car. The garage it came from have concluded with "it must just be a Yaris thing, it's safe to drive". We're not buying this and I want to ask a forum full of actual Yaris owners about it.

On a test drive I commented that the steering was very light. I've felt very light steering before, but I didn't twig that it was in fact not behaving normally on the limited short drive and didn't tag it as a Bad Thing.

The steering doesn't return to centre itself. You can leave the wheel at as much as a 90 degree turn in either direction and it won't come back on its own. Beyond that it will return, but VERY lightly, so that in the course of normal driving round town it needs to be purposefuly turned rather than it pushing its way back through your hands. When on a roundabout, the only time I've ever felt the kind of wheel feedback as this gives is when entering an understeer.

It makes for a car that I'd say is a bit tricky to drive confidently. It has to be watched. It feels a little skittish at high speed but not terribly, the real trouble is town driving where you have to undo the wheel actively from turns. A pro driver may say that you should do that anyway, but let's be honest, few people positively feed the wheel when leisurely driving in town. :-)

We had an unused RAC vehicle inspection credit, so we had it checked over. This was aftr buying it, because I didn't drive it for a little while after she bought it and being a New Driver, Jules knew no better. The RAC guy noted the steering issue and recommended it be fixed as a safety concern. Coincidentally, when he arrived to check it he said to me "ooh, a Yaris. I've done loads of these. We've got a contract with Toyota and I usually get them in this area."

I'd say that's enough to tell us that if this was "a Yaris thing" he'd be in an ideal position to say "It's quite common". He'd never seen anything like it before, and made a couple of suggestions as to the cause since the visible steering and suspension components were all in excellent condition. Steering rack, or possibly non-standard tyre size fitted were his best guesses.

So back to the garage it went, and I sh*t you not, they set the tracking and gave her it back. I was told to my face "it may just be a thing with smaller cars". Rubbish, driven loads of cars and I've never felt anything remotely like this.

Back in it went the next day, with the instruction not to return it til it was fixed.

At a loss to find any suspect component, they allegedly submitted it to the local Toyota dealership (although in our town that's a Arnold Clark with track record of shenanigans in the maintenance dept) who advised replacing the steering rack.

The dealer replaced it, no difference. All possible parts were taken out and checked and still no culprit could be found. They replaced the front struts. At my request when tyre size came up again, standard sizes were fitted to eliminate that, and still no difference.

Again allegedly the Toyota dealer was able to test a similar year and model Yaris and told the dealer that they did indeed observe the same steering looseness, thus both dealers concluded that "it's a Yaris thing". I have my doubts folks, because if it was, a Toyota dealer would have seen it before so why would they initially recommend a rack replacement? And both of them must have thought it was Wrong enough to merit fixing it in the first place.

Oh, also, I asked a pack of no less than four gathered salesmen at an independent Toyota dealership in a nearby town about this, and they all reckoned it was suspicious and they're never seen or heard of such a thing. I know the salesguys might not be mechanics, but out of four I'm fairly sure somebody would have recognised it if it were a common thing.

We've got it back now as Nothing More We Can Do. So I thought the best thing to do would be to poll people who have a Yaris of that type and see if anyone is able to give any weight to the dealers' reckoning that It's A Yaris Thing.

So can you help me out please?

If you've read this far, could you please post a reply whether you do or don't have steering that sounds like my description - it'll be just as helpful to hear from anyone who doesn't have this as anyone who does!

Cheers folks! :-)

Hi member 'MyEvilTwin'

From reading your post - it seems like the car is unsafe to drive. Normally all cars with power steering should return to centre by itself.

The only faults I think that might conclude the problems are:

The instability issue maybe that your

- wheel nuts are loose,

- again worn steering and suspension joints

And the weird steering angle is probably becasue :

- Broken or slipping auxillary drivebelt (power steering mechanism uses drivebelt)

- Faulty power steering motor - maybe fuse blown or damaged wiring

- Incorrect power steering hydrulic fluid

- Restriction i.e. blockages in power steering fluid hoses

- Faulty Power steering pump

- Faulty rack and pinion steering gear

Another issue - has the car ever been in accident or damaged in anyway?

My best guess is that if the steering rack isn't the issue then it's probs the steering drivebelt system or the power steering motor is worn out other than that it's certainly not a 'Yaris thing'.

Is there another toyota dealer in the area as different dealers offer differnt customer service and also sometime local garages may know a thing or too. I know my local garage owned by my dad's friend and his dad are really helpful.

I hope you find the solution soon!

[MyEvilTwin]

Hey, thanks for the helpful reply already Zeemmax. :-)

The trouble is, the garage will have me believe they've been round all these parts and either examined thoroughly or outright replaced them Just In Case. *rubs chin* Suuuuure they have.... ;-p

Here's some techier info about this;

It's an electric power steering rack apparently, and the garage says this means no fluid to leak.

Regards crash/impact damage - RAC inspector specifically noted that everything was is excellent condition, nothing visible in bodywork or underneath to suggest accident damage or repair (noting consistent original paint surface in engine bay as one indicator to this that's usually a giveaway). Also noted no fluid leaks of any sort.

Here's what I know about car steering returning to (almost) centre naturally - The steering on cars is usually pulled back to centre naturally when moving forward by our good friend Physics, thanks to a slight castor in the way the front wheels are mounted - think of a shopping trolley's front wheels to clarify this. Push it forward, the wheels straighten. If the castor was greater or less than it should be, return to centre would increase or reduced depending on whether it was too little or too great. Normal production cars *usually* have factory set castor which can't be adjusted manually - the Yaris doesn't have adjustable castor.

My gut tells me to take this to a trusty Toyota garage detached from the case so far, task them with diagnosing the problem.

Anyone else able to tell me about their Yaris steering? Anyone with a 1.0 2003 model who's experienced with various other cars as comparison?

If we do have to take it to an out-of-town Toyota I'll make sure to post the results so that Google can help others of course. :-)

[MyEvilTwin]

Can't say Ive noticed the problem in mine...

Actually it does very much return to centre while driving as I was sat at some lights waiting to turn left round a bend, let the Yaris move forward slowly and the wheel turned.

I don't know what the prblem is with yours though...only that it DOES sound like a problem.

So basically if you're on a car park and turn 90degrees left and go forward, it doesnt straighten out? Because mine does...

That's exactly right. I could go in a great big circle in a big enough car park. That's the wheel at roughly 90 degrees incidentally, ie 9 O'clock or 3 O'clock position. From a tighter turn it would return only to roughly that point. Any other car I've driven (hired car freak here so loads) brings the wheel back to just a couple of degrees from dead centre.

Thanks for that reply, Crazy. Any more able to tell me their Yaris comes back to a straight line or near as dammit please?

[bjw]

I do not own a Yaris but I noticed after having new tyres on the front of a Avensis which were done by a tyre centre that when the car was traveling in a straight line the steering wheel in the car was not level !!!whether it had anything to do with the tyre replacement I do not know.

Also it has been posted on the forums that if you reject a car within 6 months of purchase the supplying dealer has to prove the car is not faulty rather than you have to prove it is but you have to give them chance to repair it first!! these changes are quite recent.

If purchased from a Toyota dealer under there used car scheme I believe you can change the car for another car within 30 days of purchase

If you are still not happy arrange a meeting with the dealer principle and try to put your complaint in writing and keep records of any letters sent

Its a pity Moonstone Mart does not spot this post as he is a Toyota technician and he could offer some advise to what may cause this problem perhaps you could do a post " help Moonstone Mart" one last point I know it sounds obvious but have you checked tyre pressures !! an over inflated tyre may cause this type of problem but I am sure this is one of the first things that was checked

[christopher0151]

Sounds like it has positive camber instead of negative camber,positive will give you light steering but poor roadholding and it will feel unsafe at speed, negative will be heavier steering and lots more grip and just feels better at any speed, one explanation is the wrong track control arms fitted, but this would only be if they were damaged, an 03 car would never need them replaced because of wear,also the suspension strut top mounts may have been removed and refitted in the wrong position, check the nuts on the top mounts and track arms and anywhere else on front suspension for signs of being removed and refitted.

Also, from the front of the car check the angles of the wheels, they should be very very slightly leaning in at the top, this is negative camber.

hope this helps.

Chris.

[gar]

Sounds like it has positive camber instead of negative camber,positive will give you light steering but poor roadholding and it will feel unsafe at speed, negative will be heavier steering and lots more grip and just feels better at any speed, one explanation is the wrong track control arms fitted, but this would only be if they were damaged, an 03 car would never need them replaced because of wear,also the suspension strut top mounts may have been removed and refitted in the wrong position, check the nuts on the top mounts and track arms and anywhere else on front suspension for signs of being removed and refitted.

Also, from the front of the car check the angles of the wheels, they should be very very slightly leaning in at the top, this is negative camber.

hope this helps.

Chris.

This does on the outset, sound a little unusual, but if I recall; correctly, I once drove a Renault 5 turbo from south London, to Wembley to drop it off and collect my then owned car.

That Renault too, did what you say the Yaris does. The guy I was driving it for stated that they all do that, to some degree. I think tyres, tracking etc, may exacerbate the situation but it is not as cut and dried as you would think!

This is one of the main reasons, as a driver, you should use the correct 'pull-push' technique when steering.

As a recently qualified driver, shurely your lass should still be using this method?

That said, my Yaris doesn't do this, at least, not to such a degree.

One more thing, Did anyone check to see if the tyres were 'facing' the right way?

I think the standard Bridgestones can be put any way but lots of tyres are 'rotational' that is, they must only be driven on, rolling the correct way forwards!

(reversing won't count as it is done only for short distances). Have a look, it is sooo easy to miss this. There should be arrows and wording stating the correct rolling direction, if it needs it.

[padtwo]

Had some strange handling on a previous car. Not so good going into a roundaout, but very sure footed coming out. Also felt VERY light when in a straight line, almost like the wheel wasn't connected to anything. I was permanently having to adjust the wheel, but with very little feel, and very little results. Not nice! Had a full geometry check done and one front wheel had -ve camber, and one +ve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How is the tyre wear on your car? Also, if you reverse out of a space how does the steering feel then?

[eiriksmil]

Interesting. I'm experiencing the exact same problem with my Charade, but the Yaris is fine - it's returning back to normal after having cornered sharpish at low speeds. I'll lower the Charade this winter though, we'll see if that helps. If it's related to camber it will ;) I'll also be having a track adjustment after lowering, I don't know whether this will help.

The Verso had a bad tracking for a while though, but the result there was more that the car pulled a bit to one side.

[MyEvilTwin]

Thanks for all these replies folks! :-D

The RAC inspector noted there were two different types of tyres on the car, but in the form of a front pair and rear pair and that they do in fact have directional tread to as you suggest there, and indeed they're facing the right way for forward motion.

padtwo's describing a similar sounding driving feeling there. Wonder if we might turn out to have a camber issue then. If it is, I'll be pretty annoyed that it wasn't checked - we were told it had been.

Tyre wear is even, but you know, I never thought to note what it does when reversing! I'll give that a try tomorrow.

As gar says push-pull steering should override the issue, but it's not a comfortable way to work for most people, me included. There's a feedback element to being able to feel a return pressure against your hands too even using push-pull.

I've booked it in to the Toyota dealership in the next town from me (not the one mentioned in the original Story) this week to have them investigate and diagnose on my payroll - that way I know I won't get any crazy talk filtered via the selling garage. Can't wait to find out the story! I'll post their findings of course. Thanks so far folks! :-D

Oh, another post minutes ago there: eiriksmil, has it appeared on your Charade or has it always been like that?

[eiriksmil]

Oh, another post minutes ago there: eiriksmil, has it appeared on your Charade or has it always been like that?

Been like it since I bought the car in August. In a way I wish it would have just happened while I've had it, in that case I would have known what it is. Well, time will show. But if you find out, you'll give us the answer here, yeah? I'm atleast glad I'm not the only one with this issue, although I wish none of us had it.

[MyEvilTwin]

Well here's my amazing post-Toyota report. It's SO much better to have a proper Toyota place working for you...

The new steering rack hasn't been centred properly. Sheesh. More on that in a moment though.

I've been given pictures showing where there should be clamps on the new rack but they haven't been fitted. The boots at the ends are loose. What a shabby job.

With these discoveries, I no longer have any trust for the selling dealer. Let's hope Google indexes this thread and let it be known that the incompetent second hand car dealer is Robert Wyper Kilmarnock.

The Toyota place's foreman explained to me about the steering centering. This car has electric power steering. It has a controller which needs to have the Zero Point set properly. In other words, the wheels and steering components are set up fully, put in their straight-ahead position, and the controller is Zeroed.

Knowing where the Zero Point is, the controller can correctly deliver the appropriate steering assistance as needed.

Now before I get my party hat on, this may not be the source of the troublesome issue this thread is about. It occurs to me that if the controller thinks it's at a different steering point than it actually is then it might account for the very light and non-returning steering, but on thinking through more, I'd expect an uneven steer assistance between sides, which there doesn't appear to be. I'll stop speculating there though as I'm out of my depth with how the mechanism actually works.

Other findings about this particualr car are that it has Team Toyota Europe alloys, which WERE an option for this model and year of Yaris. It's had the suspension lowered, but thankfully the spring kit looks to also be the TTE option as is the body kit.

Currently, Toyota Guy suspects the issue is probably not being caused by the incorrect centering set up (it would mean the previous factory fit rack was also mis-set obviously as the fault remains after the rack was changed) but by the steering column. It'll cost me to get this dealt with properly but the people at Toyota give me a rare confidence, know their products very impressively and dare I say inspire trust. Hope I don't regret that ;-)

Anyway, I'm going to look into the legal position on forcing the vendor dealer to pay for the Toyota garage to do the work as they clearly can't be trusted to diagnose, carry out work, or report results with integrity. I'm also going to ask who exactly at Arnold Clark in Kilmarnock allegedly told them they had a Yaris "just like that" and that therefore it must be a Yaris Thing. I'm certain there was no such person, but we'll see.

So there's where we are now. Phew.

[bjw]

While the thread which I will post below does not have any relation to your steering problems there are some useful links regarding rejecting a car which is not of satisfactory quality

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=72307s

[eiriksmil]

MyEvilTwin, the Charade also has got power assisted steering, so it might very well be that.. Maybe I have to get it on jackstands and have a look <_<

[forde]

mine straightens out perfect, and dam quickly too.

[AGrainger]

My girlfriend's recently bought an '03 Yaris 1.0 T3 and it's got the wierdest steering anyone (who I trust) has ever felt in any car. The garage it came from have concluded with "it must just be a Yaris thing, it's safe to drive". We're not buying this and I want to ask a forum full of actual Yaris owners about it.

On a test drive I commented that the steering was very light. I've felt very light steering before, but I didn't twig that it was in fact not behaving normally on the limited short drive and didn't tag it as a Bad Thing.

The steering doesn't return to centre itself. You can leave the wheel at as much as a 90 degree turn in either direction and it won't come back on its own. Beyond that it will return, but VERY lightly, so that in the course of normal driving round town it needs to be purposefuly turned rather than it pushing its way back through your hands. When on a roundabout, the only time I've ever felt the kind of wheel feedback as this gives is when entering an understeer.

It makes for a car that I'd say is a bit tricky to drive confidently. It has to be watched. It feels a little skittish at high speed but not terribly, the real trouble is town driving where you have to undo the wheel actively from turns. A pro driver may say that you should do that anyway, but let's be honest, few people positively feed the wheel when leisurely driving in town. :-)

We had an unused RAC vehicle inspection credit, so we had it checked over. This was aftr buying it, because I didn't drive it for a little while after she bought it and being a New Driver, Jules knew no better. The RAC guy noted the steering issue and recommended it be fixed as a safety concern. Coincidentally, when he arrived to check it he said to me "ooh, a Yaris. I've done loads of these. We've got a contract with Toyota and I usually get them in this area."

I'd say that's enough to tell us that if this was "a Yaris thing" he'd be in an ideal position to say "It's quite common". He'd never seen anything like it before, and made a couple of suggestions as to the cause since the visible steering and suspension components were all in excellent condition. Steering rack, or possibly non-standard tyre size fitted were his best guesses.

So back to the garage it went, and I sh*t you not, they set the tracking and gave her it back. I was told to my face "it may just be a thing with smaller cars". Rubbish, driven loads of cars and I've never felt anything remotely like this.

Back in it went the next day, with the instruction not to return it til it was fixed.

At a loss to find any suspect component, they allegedly submitted it to the local Toyota dealership (although in our town that's a Arnold Clark with track record of shenanigans in the maintenance dept) who advised replacing the steering rack.

The dealer replaced it, no difference. All possible parts were taken out and checked and still no culprit could be found. They replaced the front struts. At my request when tyre size came up again, standard sizes were fitted to eliminate that, and still no difference.

Again allegedly the Toyota dealer was able to test a similar year and model Yaris and told the dealer that they did indeed observe the same steering looseness, thus both dealers concluded that "it's a Yaris thing". I have my doubts folks, because if it was, a Toyota dealer would have seen it before so why would they initially recommend a rack replacement? And both of them must have thought it was Wrong enough to merit fixing it in the first place.

Oh, also, I asked a pack of no less than four gathered salesmen at an independent Toyota dealership in a nearby town about this, and they all reckoned it was suspicious and they're never seen or heard of such a thing. I know the salesguys might not be mechanics, but out of four I'm fairly sure somebody would have recognised it if it were a common thing.

We've got it back now as Nothing More We Can Do. So I thought the best thing to do would be to poll people who have a Yaris of that type and see if anyone is able to give any weight to the dealers' reckoning that It's A Yaris Thing.

So can you help me out please?

If you've read this far, could you please post a reply whether you do or don't have steering that sounds like my description - it'll be just as helpful to hear from anyone who doesn't have this as anyone who does!

Cheers folks! :-)

hi,

my own yaris doesnt spring back to centre when coming out of a corner.. if im correct then havnt they got variable power steering? if so then i think it might be to do with that...

i know what you mean, i'v driven the '05 suzuki swift and that comes back to centre fine

[Krayon_Yaris_sr]

just thought id let you know my steering returns to center.

kerry

[samir23]

Hi,

My steering wheel goes back to the centre as well...

Hope u get your prob with your car finally sorted ;)

[C_U_Jimi]

Hello MyEvilTwin, did you ever find the cause of your problem.

My son has the same problem with his Yaris. It started after he drove with a very deflated front tyre. Now the steering is vague around the centre position and does not self-centre. This is a step-change in behaviour because I drove the car prior to this and it had very sharp steering.

[.Chris]

read through all of that eventually lol!

i have a t3 1.0 2003 driven it for the last 2 years, and i can say i have NEVER had that problem, so it definatly seems unusual.

I will agree it can be very 'skittish'. the steering is very light and all the pedals are very sensitive. but the wheel would always return to center (so much so u can drive in traffic with no hands... not that condone this, or saying ive done it :bookworm: ) it is also VERY stable at high speeds (has caught me out at points where i havnt releaised how fast i was actually going)

on a note of damage etc. i had front end damage from a crash i had in it, and when it came back from being repaired it was a good as new, so no effected by that...

dunno what more i can say then that, other then i have not had the same issues as you and it is exactly the same year spec and model.

hope that helps.

[MyEvilTwin]

Thanks for that Chris, and yep, it's further reassurance.

For anyone who followed this thread way back, I've realised I never reported what's gone on, so;

Nice legal letter to the dealer pretty much telling them we wanted it fixed, at a Toyota service centre only, at their expense in full or it was a Small Claims Court case.

One of the Directors wrote back stating that we could get it done at their expense.

It went to Toyota, the extra helpful and on-the-ball guys in Ayr as before, and they first of all put everything right as it should have been after Wyper's butchers the new rack incompletely fitted (no clamps on the gaiters, rack not centre zeroed). Toyota had already told me that was a 120GBP job, so that was all done. They of course needed that to be fixed up to make sure the bad rack fitting wasn't causing any problems.

Then their foreman called up Robert Wyper's service manager and told him the only remaining thing to try was to replace the steering column. The steering column unit includes the electric power assist unit, so isn't cheap. About £800 for the job completed in fact. So the service manager soiled himself and said he wanted to source the part and do the work instead.

I spoke to this guy and explained this wasn't what we had, in writing, from that director, but he wasn't for budging.

Anyway, enough life wasted on this nonsense, GF and I concluded that we'd allow them to do it, on the condition that the work was then inspected by Toyota, at their expense. This wasn't outright agreed, but he'd call us back in a day or two once the (part time old guy) Director was next in to be asked about it. That call's never come. That was the last position when last we spoke to any of them at that lameass dealer. This was a couple of months ago now. We've been very busy and haven't got round to executing action yet, but we will.

On the technical side, I noticed right away that the steering was firmer after Toyota set it up. More drivable. The strange response and not returning problem still very much continues though.

An interesting point came up in the pub, as such things often do. Is it likely that many companies manufacture non-genuine Yaris steering column assemblies? My good friend Google only finds mention of them from car breakers. Come to think of it, the Dealer's Service Monkey DID mutter something about "hmm, they might be a serialed part though..." on the phone. I wonder if that's what was going through his mind at that point.

Obviously we're not having a steering component off a wreck!

Anyway, we'll shortly compile the case notes and get these rats off to court. Worse and more expensive for them in the end of course. Silly.

On a plus note, I just found out yesterday that if you unlock the car and don't open a door within about 30 seconds it locks them again. Neat! :-)

[.Chris]

was talking to one of the sales people at my local mr t, who luckily for me they have always been **** awsome. always provide well above the service we've asked.

they said that they were suprised how different some dealerships can be and their attitudes etc. its a shame, but then once a place has a certain attitude its difficult to change it, sometimes thats a bad thing, sometimes thats great.

hope you get you car sorted, at least they are doing something... shame its not to the full exspectation.

[gar]

Thanks for that Chris, and yep, it's further reassurance.

For anyone who followed this thread way back, I've realised I never reported what's gone on, so;

Nice legal letter to the dealer pretty much telling them we wanted it fixed, at a Toyota service centre only, at their expense in full or it was a Small Claims Court case.

One of the Directors wrote back stating that we could get it done at their expense.

It went to Toyota, the extra helpful and on-the-ball guys in Ayr as before, and they first of all put everything right as it should have been after Wyper's butchers the new rack incompletely fitted (no clamps on the gaiters, rack not centre zeroed). Toyota had already told me that was a 120GBP job, so that was all done. They of course needed that to be fixed up to make sure the bad rack fitting wasn't causing any problems.

Then their foreman called up Robert Wyper's service manager and told him the only remaining thing to try was to replace the steering column. The steering column unit includes the electric power assist unit, so isn't cheap. About £800 for the job completed in fact. So the service manager soiled himself and said he wanted to source the part and do the work instead.

I spoke to this guy and explained this wasn't what we had, in writing, from that director, but he wasn't for budging.

Anyway, enough life wasted on this nonsense, GF and I concluded that we'd allow them to do it, on the condition that the work was then inspected by Toyota, at their expense. This wasn't outright agreed, but he'd call us back in a day or two once the (part time old guy) Director was next in to be asked about it. That call's never come. That was the last position when last we spoke to any of them at that lameass dealer. This was a couple of months ago now. We've been very busy and haven't got round to executing action yet, but we will.

On the technical side, I noticed right away that the steering was firmer after Toyota set it up. More drivable. The strange response and not returning problem still very much continues though.

An interesting point came up in the pub, as such things often do. Is it likely that many companies manufacture non-genuine Yaris steering column assemblies? My good friend Google only finds mention of them from car breakers. Come to think of it, the Dealer's Service Monkey DID mutter something about "hmm, they might be a serialed part though..." on the phone. I wonder if that's what was going through his mind at that point.

Obviously we're not having a steering component off a wreck!

Anyway, we'll shortly compile the case notes and get these rats off to court. Worse and more expensive for them in the end of course. Silly.

On a plus note, I just found out yesterday that if you unlock the car and don't open a door within about 30 seconds it locks them again. Neat! :-)

Hi, it is unlikely they or you will find a non genuine make of steering column for the Yaris... Its hard enough to get a flippin' pattern rear window wiper blade!

[carmona888]

Hi MyEvilTwin and others,

I have just bought privately a 2002 1.0l Yaris and I have the same sticky steering problem.

MyEvilTwin, have you ever got to the bottom of the problem?