Steering Tie Rod Assembly problems of the 2006 Toyota RAV4

While driving on a suburban NJ road at around 30-40mph, the vehicle lost steering control out of the blue. The car veered into the left lane, I attempted to right the car and simultaneously hit the breaks. The abs response kicked in, and the car veered drastically to the right, going off the road, across the sidewalk, and finally coming to a stop in the woods. The repair shop discovered that the cause of accident was a broken tie rod of the back right wheel, that had been broken for a while because the sleeve encasing had rusted over. The damage to the car totalled $10,000, and the shop would have totaled the car if the milage hadnt been so low.

Over the course of the past 2 months I have heard a quiet popping noise coming from the back right tire area when I make turns. I actually visited a Toyota dealer 1/8/2013 because there was a lower suspension arm recall on my vehicle. They "inspected" and put a sticker on, and a worthless clamp (might as well been a paperclip) on the the tie rod. On 2/27/13, I took a few CO-workers to lunch and they noticed a loud pop every time I turned a corner or hit any uneven spot in the road. When I pulled into my parking spot at work I got out and looked at the rear right tire and it was slanted only slightly. Later in the day, I backed out of my parking spot and heard a very severe pop and the tire made a whooshing noise as it was making contact with the tire well. The vehicle was out of service at this point. I got my vehicle toed to a nearby shop, and they found that the tie rod on the rear right wheel was bent severely. The mechanic that was inspecting my vehicle was not a dealer, and agreed that the "fix" Toyota developed for this recall issue was worthless, and agreed that I could have been seriously injured if this had failed on the highway. I have a photo of the bent tie rod, and visited the shop to see for myself this afternoon. I truly think that Toyota's fix should have been to replace everyone's tie rods. People's lives are still at risk! I plan to submit my charges to Toyota for reimbursement.

We just had our 2006 Rav4 state inspection today and the dealership told us we needed to have the front inner tie rod replaced since it has become unstable. They said this cannot be replaced by itself since it is attached to the steering rack, so we will need entire rack replaced, resulting in $2400 in repairs. The dealership also said this should be replaced within the next couple of months for safety reasons, since it can go out of alignment at any time. We've also heard knocking when we turn the car for the past couple of years and have asked about it, but never been given an explanation as to why. The dealership now says this could be the cause. If this is a problem of integrity with the part and not a wear & tear issue then I think this should definitely be a recall since it is a fault of the dealership.

I was driving by 88 st and 94 Ave in miami, florida went through the train tracks, and heard a loud noise, like an explosion, and the car started to shake and move to the left lane, thank god there was no cars coming, so I finally control the vehicle, I look for a reason of the explosion, and then drag. . . Literally to a shopping plaza, where I noticed the tire behind on the driver side was almost separating from the vehicle. I called my son, and he send a tow truck, later a mechanic would tell me that the inner tie rod broke. I noticed months before that the car made funny noises from the suspension. I called the dealer sent an e-mail to Toyota USA warning them, they told me to go to the dealer. They didn't care what I said to them, I went three times to them, Toyota USA insisted to go to the dealer. Three years later Toyota USA sent me a warning brochure about the inner-tie rod problem and how to do the alignment on the rav 4 but when I bought the car they never said anything about doing this procedure. I did the alignment for the rav 4 in a place that has all the certifications, in my opinion the rav-4 has a defect involving the suspension ( after shocks) and the inner-tie rods, I hope this helps find the reason of this problem. And how to get reimbursed for all the expenses that I went through this. .