general problems of the 2001 Toyota Sienna

The spare tire mechanism broke on my 2001 Toyota Sienna minivan. Thankfully I was trying to remove the spare when it happened and the spare tire did not go flying into traffic. The cable broke at the end where the cable goes through the metal holder/bracket that actually clamps to the wheel. If this had broken off when the van was moving, either the van would have been damaged by the spare getting caught between the road and the van or the spare may have hit another car. This is maybe the second time that we have had the spare off in the 258k miles we have owned the car so it is not something that we inspect regularly. There are a lot of these vans out there and I really don't want to be behind one when the spare lets go. The dealership claimed that my van did not have a recall on this item.

The original equipment aluminum alloy wheel rims on my Toyota Sienna minivan show fatigue breaks. When I asked a tire shop to rotate the tires, they noticed that one of the rims was so bad that they refused to put the wheel back on the car. The crack in this one was very visible and was slightly visible in another. I have replaced all four rims, but I kept the worst one and have taken photos that clearly show that one of the spokes is broken over most of the width of the spoke. The crack is visible from the front and back of the rim. I would like to forward these digital photos, if you will provide an email address.