The gear shift lever, which is mounted on the steering column, snapped off inside the column when shifting from neutral into reverse (on a road trip 2500 miles from home, in a hotel parking lot!). With a little jiggering we were able to get it into Park to leave it there overnight, and the next morning, with more difficulty, into neutral so it could be loaded onto a flatbed for transport to a shop. The mechanic showed me where the aluminum housing inside the column had cracked more or less in half.
Because of the location where the lever joins the steering column, several layers down in all the components inside there, it was cheaper (labor cost) to replace the entire steering column with a used one from another Sienna of the same vintage, than it would have been to take the column apart and install a new housing with lever. Still $800.
The gear shift lever, which is mounted on the steering column, snapped off inside the column when shifting from neutral into reverse (on a road trip 2500 miles from home, in a hotel parking lot!). With a little jiggering we were able to get it into Park to leave it there overnight, and the next morning, with more difficulty, into neutral so it could be loaded onto a flatbed for transport to a shop. The mechanic showed me where the aluminum housing inside the column had cracked more or less in half.
Because of the location where the lever joins the steering column, several layers down in all the components inside there, it was cheaper (labor cost) to replace the entire steering column with a used one from another Sienna of the same vintage, than it would have been to take the column apart and install a new housing with lever. Still $800.
- nmgyrl, Albuquerque, NM, US