Three problems related to steering have been reported for the 2002 Toyota Sienna. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Toyota Sienna based on all problems reported for the 2002 Sienna.
Steering gets stiff hard to turn steering.
The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Sienna. The contact was driving approximately 5 mph when the steering wheel became abnormally hard to maneuver. The contact stated that he was able to finally move the steering wheel but the vehicle would not respond. The vehicle was towed to the to the contacts place or residence. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing or repairs. The VIN was unavailable. The approximate failure mileage was 57,000.
My wife was backing out of a parking space on a slight incline. When she stopped and tried to put the car into drive, the gearshift broke. We had the van towed to the Toyota dealer and they determined that the metal parts into which the gear shaft inserts had broken clean in half. Neither the customer service rep nor the mechanic had ever seen that happen before they claimed. Nevertheless, Toyota did not deem this to be a defect and we had to pay close to $800 to have it fixed. Had this happened on a steeper hill or had my wife been pulling out into a busy street, an accident most definitely could have occurred. I have kept the parts which I believe were faulty/defective. The parts that were replaced were a tilt steering support, a steering tube sub-assembly, a shaft sub-assembly and a tilt steering bolt.