Steering Column Problems of Toyota Sequoia

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Sequoia. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to shift into park. The contact diagnosed that the shift lever bracket and the steering column housing were fractured and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failures. The VIN was unavailable. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.

See all problems of the 2002 Toyota Sequoia 🔎.

I have a 2002 Sequoia, a couple of weeks ago while driving at 35 mph my brakes locked. I took it immediately to my brake guy; he looked it over, put it on the machine, found nothing. I left thinking it might have been something on the road that I missed seeing, that set off the traction sensors. A week went by without incident before it happened again; this time at 40mph on a flat clean highway. The trac off, vsc trac & the slip indicator light came on while the front end shook violently and pulled hard to the right. I was unable to adjust the brake, as it felt locked and my steering column, while vibrating madly was near impossible to turn, it was like driving an old style truck without power steering. I went to another brake shop, they hooked it up to the machine, and again nothing showed up!! today, five days later, while driving home with my children on a major highway doing the posted 65mph it happened again. I was suddenly unable to maneuver my vehicle, the brakes locked, the steering locked, and my vehicle pulled to the right. I just held on and prayed as my car pulled off the road, thank heavens the ground was flat. I have only been that afraid for my family's safety once before, and that was in the middle of a tornado. Toyota has a serious problem here!.

My traction lights have been on and have remained on for several years now. My husband says my panel looks like a christmas tree. I have contacted the dealership to see if there was a recall but was advised there is not. I haven't had any issues,until this past weekend, other than not realizing I had engaged my emergency brake since the light constantly stays on. I nearly wrecked this weekend. It was dark and raining. I had to apply the brakes to miss another car, the brakes locked up and started sliding out of control. Luckily I was able to get it stopped in time to avoid another accident. My traction control doesn't work either, I guess it went out when all the other control lights went out. I just wonder if the airbags work, hope I don't have to find out the hard way. I keep reading numerous complaints on the 2002 model but haven't seen a recall. Appears there was a recall on the 2003 model for the same issues. My steering column is broken. I had it checked out several years ago. Apparently the main metal component is broken and therefore my gears engagement doesn't light up when I am in drive. If someone else drives my car, they don't know what gear it's in. I ready many complaints about the same but no recall. My rear hatch handle has broken 2 times now within a year of the other which costs me $100 to repair each time. It appears to be cheaply made and plastic and it can't be repaired without a lot of labor to dismantle the rear door plate on the inside to install a new handle. My main concern is the electronic stability control system.

I am a police officer and purchased a new 2002 Sequoia with high expectations. Shortly after my purchase I noticed that something felt loose in the steering column whenever I shifted the gear handle. The dealer said that there was nothing wrong with it and don't worry about it. The dealer also failed to document my concerns into my vehicle's service record history. Since that time, the vehicle has never received any mechanical damage or had any type of work other than routine maintenance done to it. Now, here I am with a Toyota vehicle with only 40,000 miles and a piece of metal has snapped inside of the steering column. The defective parts failure has caused the vehicle to be completely unsafe to operate and the slightest bump to shift the transmission to and from different gears while operating. I took it to the dealer to be repaired under the 5 year warranty and they said that they had never seen this problem before and it shouldn't have happened, but that they would do absolutely nothing to help me out with the problem. I informed the dealer to save the defective part, because it needed to be examined for manufacturers defect. At no time did the dealer ever mentioned, much less offer to have Toyotas engineers examine the defective part. I should be receiving the defective part within the next few days. This problem was strictly due to a manufacturers defective part, yet Toyota refuses to do the right thing and stand behind their product. I am very disappointed in Toyota's lack of quality and especially in it's lack of service commitment. Needless to say, I will never buy another Toyota product and will definitely spread the word about Toyota's refusal to warranty an obviously defective part. Updated 6/01/06.