No power steering on '08 Yaris after airbag recall done

[madradjessica]

TL;DR: My car has no power steering after passenger airbag recall done at dealership and is undriveable; they are saying my car needs $2,000 in repairs. How could that happen?


I could not find any posts from anyone else with a situation like mine, but I really need help from anyone who might know what could have happened to my car because I am not the most car savvy. On December 6 I FINALLY took my car to get my passenger airbag recall done after putting it off for literally years. I never take my car to the dealership anymore UNLESS it's something like this because they are always trying to tell me I need stuff I don't need done to my car.

After waiting 2+ hours, the service guy comes out to tell me my car now has no power steering and tells me the technician says I need all these repairs done totaling over $2,000. Keep in mind I have been driving this car everyday for years WITH power steering. After having a breakdown, the guy, who could not care less, just says "you can get it towed if you want". How could my car just all of a sudden lose power steering? They kept claiming when they took the dash off they noticed someone did bad work on my steering column and they were just the ones to find it. I have been the only owner of this car and the only dealership that has ever done anything to my steering sensor was this exact dealership in 2010.

So...I'm guessing the service manager came over and saw how upset I was and I was set up with a loaner vehicle while they "look into it". Since that day they have been strictly contacting my brother on the phone because he is way better at dealing with this than I could be. The technician that worked on my car says I need my entire steering column replaced plus the whole electrical system that makes the power steering work. The dealership is doing everything they can to say it is not their fault but we are thinking they did not disconnect the battery before doing the recall. I've been going back and forth with Toyota corporate. The dealership keeps claiming they ran my carfax report and see 2 different owners on my car and 2 accidents which is not accurate.

The most recent update was that the service manager said that Toyota regional did not approve them to fix the issue that we are pretty sure they caused. The dealership is giving regional and corporate a totally different story so now we are waiting for a decision from corporate which they said they would have an answer for me on Monday.


Does anyone know if there is any way I am at fault for this happening? Like I said, my car was in perfect working condition when I drove it into the service center there. The only semi-major repair I've had done on this car is getting the serpentine belt replaced. It does have roughly 140,000 miles on it, but I have taken good care of the car these past 10 years.

Sorry this is all over the place, I am just extremely worried about the outcome right now. :(