Tie rod sheared off!

That's the part for a 2009. The OP's profile does say 2009, but post #1 does also say "Gen 3" and this is the Gen 3 forum. I cannot find the inner rod (from Toyota) for a Gen 3 (see figure in #9). It seems that between Gen 2 and Gen 3, Toyota decided not to offer the inner tie rods separately. (They are available aftermarket, as BZzap! showed in #15.)

So I'm not totally sure what the OP's car is. Is it a Gen 3? Is it a 2009? DId Gen 3 start in 2009 in the UK? I'm not sure.

While I agree with BZzap! that it looks like only the tie rod broke, and could probably be replaced, there is a nagging question in my head about just why it broke like that, inside of a year. I wouldn't want to see it happen again.

 

One can only guess as to how that tie rod broke. I do know that where it did break, is the weak link. At the very end of those thread is a definite stress riser due to the manufacturing process. Is it a defective part? Maybe…but I think something else exacerbated the failure. The tie rods don’t have much side load stress. They work in a linear plane.
The only other thing I can think of, is the ball socket is at the end of the rod is heavily corroded and frozen up. After a while this would work the tie rod to the point of failure…at the weakest point.

 

Just be careful what country you source the part from. Here in the States cars are driven from the left side of the vehicle on the right side of the road. I know England is right hand side drive driven on the left side of the road. It is not clear to me that the steering rack is reversible to work for both situations. I strongly suspect it is not and that would limit what places you want to procure one from...

 

Does the car have the orginal wheels/rims? A hard hit to a curb might have overstressed the steering box components, but I think any hit hard enough to break that would have destroyed a rim. Probably wise to do a close look inspection specifically looking for signs of a hidden accident from the previous owner. I am not sure about England but in the states we have several services, one is called CarFax that can track the repair history of a vehicle by the VIN number. If it had ever been titled as a salvage vehicle that would show up, or at least in the States it would. I am not sure how that kind of information might be recorded differently in England.

 

Holy rip-off, Batman...

 

Sorta like taking you dog to the vet. Such a simple job to take advantage of a lay person. This is why people don’t trust mechanics like these. They are nothing more than predators!

 

Wow. Been fixing cars for almost 32 years and have never seen a failure like that. Can't even imagine HOW that could happen (defect in the part?). Any shock to the wheel would likely bend the steering knuckle, bend the tie rod, or break the rack- such a force would be trying to compress the inner tie rod.

If you tried to pivot the inner joint way beyond its normal range of movement, you might be able to snap it, but that can't happen unless something else first broke completely.

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My theory: post #22

 

you have a pretty tight system. here, you can never trust a used car history. way too many scammers continually outsmarting the establishment

 

is it rust?

 

I would get both front wheels off the ground start the car put it in park and do
A turn the steering wheel end to end see if it feels ok then with someone turning the wheel watch that bad end see if it’s smooth in and out.
Put your hand on it feel for grinding or unsmooth motion as it articulates.

It may not show an issue unloaded but if it does not look smooth in and out unloaded you’ll know the rack is jacked too.

Never seen this injury on a car that wasn’t in a bad frontal.

 

the tie rod

 

good