Front Suspension Control Arm problems of the 2008 Toyota Yaris

Bought car with 99k miles. Noted a clunk in suspension. Decided to fix by process of elimination. Turned out it was a broken bolt that holds the control arm inside the subframe which is not accessible from the exterior. Steering was very off and this was a very dangerous issue that is clearly a defect from the manufacturer: the front subframe was poorly designed and the inner bolt that holds the long horizontal control arm bolt was improperly welded or the inner sub frame was made so water could get in and rust said bold/weld.

Broken bolt on lower control arm / only 90000 miles driven to work only / not abused.

The car started making a clucking sound on the pass side when the brake was applied . I inspected the vehicle and found the front r/s lower control arm vertical bolt had rotted out and snapped off. I went to Toyota and purchased two new updated bolts ( Toyota has a bulletin out for this defect ) I drilled out the old bolt and tried to remove it with an easy out ( I had already soaked the top of the bolt the day before with penetration oil ) the welded bolt in the sub frame broke off . I made a temp repair with washer and replaced the new bolt . I have checked out this issue and found out that there are a lot of Yaris owners out there with the same problem . I contacted Toyota c/s and ask them if they had a fix plate that I could buy to fix this proble correctly I also told them that some thing should be done before someone gets injured !.

Heard a banging sound from the front passenger side, came to find one of 3 control arm bolts had rusted out. The dealership replaced both sides for preventative measures.

My 4 year old 2008 Toyota Yaris with approximately 57,000 miles started making a clunking/banging sound when I would travel over small bumps or brake slowly. I took the car to my mechanic who looked at it and told me that I should take it to the Toyota dealer for repairs. He told me that a bolt holding the passenger lower suspension arm to the frame had corroded and sheared off. He said that if I continued driving it the entire passenger side suspension and wheel would likely break away from the car. He showed me a repair bulletin that Toyota had produced detailing the problem and stated that they should take care of it because it was an obvious manufacturing defect and since failure of that bolt could lead to a catastrophic accident. I took my car to the dealership and they looked up the bulletin and showed me that this problem was only covered as part of the basic 3 year warranty. I would be responsible for paying for the repair myself. When I picked up my car from the dealership they handed me what was left of the bolt they replaced and the other bolt that held the control arm in place. Both bolts were badly corroded and had been replaced with new bolts that the service manager told me were a different part number and were corrosion resistant. Toyota obviously knows that this is a problem because they are using different parts than the cars were shipped with from the factory. The Toyota service manager told me to keep my receipt because he expects this to be a recall issue and told me that I will be reimbursed when it is recalled. Please force Toyota to recall these vehicles before someone loses the front end of their car and their life because of a poorly constructed $5 bolt.