Broken Control Arm Bolt

[Sirius-XM]

My 2007 Yaris Sedan fell victim to the dreaded broken control bolt problem. It is way past the extended warranty on both years and miles. It is on the passenger side.

The bolt rotted away at a pretty steep angle allowing me to fit a Flathead screw driver pretty far up into the bushing. Seems with enough torque and the right size screw driver I might be able to get it out. Before I attempt that I was wondering if it was possible to break the bolt loose from the top, making it easier to get the bolt out from below. I took the carpet up and removed the Styrofoam foot rest and there are two plastic covers. Is the top of the bolts under one of them. Does the bolt protrude enough that I could get a vise grip on it to loosen it? What is the proper method for removing those covers?

[Exiwolfman]

I would double check with Toyota cos it was a campaign so would be covered even if car not under warranty you should have got a letter and if your not the original owner it would be on record with Toyota.

[Sirius-XM]

They extended it to 7 years/100K, both of which I have passed. Anyone heard different?

[Exiwolfman]

They extended it to 7 years/100K, both of which I have passed. Anyone heard different?
It's a special policy they do have time limit and have nothing to do with original warranty look into it...just asked my shop management and you maybe covered.

Sent from my S6 Edge or not so flagship killer op2

[CTScott]

My 2007 Yaris Sedan fell victim to the dreaded broken control bolt problem. It is way past the extended warranty on both years and miles. It is on the passenger side.

The bolt rotted away at a pretty steep angle allowing me to fit a Flathead screw driver pretty far up into the bushing. Seems with enough torque and the right size screw driver I might be able to get it out. Before I attempt that I was wondering if it was possible to break the bolt loose from the top, making it easier to get the bolt out from below. I took the carpet up and removed the Styrofoam foot rest and there are two plastic covers. Is the top of the bolts under one of them. Does the bolt protrude enough that I could get a vise grip on it to loosen it? What is the proper method for removing those covers?

Hopefully you can get it done under warranty. The bolt is not accessible from the top (as I found out the hard way on a Yaris that I rebuilt).

I had to drop the whole black subframe assembly and weld a nut onto what was left of the bolt.