24,000 Toyota Camrys recalled

More than 24,000 cars sold in Australia are potentially at risk of a power steering failure, with two cases already reported. Cars covered by the recall, all built in 2004 and 2005, will have the crankshaft pulley on the front of their engine replaced. "The Avalon and Camry V6 were built at our Altona factory but it is  not a manufacturing fault," Toyota spokeswoman Laura Hill said.

"The crankshaft pulley was supplied by a Japanese component provider and we  will be replacing that part on the affected cars. It takes about 90 minutes for the service staff to complete the job."

She said Toyota has identified the problem as insufficient glue being applied to the outer ring of the crankshaft pulley, which could allow movement that would dislodge the drive belt for the power steering.

The fault can cause noises from the engine bay and the charging system warning light to illuminate and, in the worst-case scenario, the driver would need much more force than normal to turn the steering. Hill said there have been no reports of steering failure in Australia.

"We've had one case of a Kluger owner noticing the charge light came on and a Lexus owner has reported the same issue," she said. Toyota Australia said the safety recall was a preventative action and customers can continue to drive their vehicles.

The announcement continues a horror year for the world's biggest carmaker, which will lose its place at the top of the global sales charts to Volkswagen and could even slip to third behind General Motors. It has also recently withdrawn its earning forecast.

Toyota's production was savaged by the March earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan and that was compounded by recent floods in Thailand that are still affecting vehicle production.

Toyota's renowned reputation for reliability has been hammered in the past two years by a succession of recalls related to "unintended   acceleration". More than three million vehicles were returned to Toyota dealerships in the US to fix accelerator pedals that stuck or could potentially be caught in floor mats.

In Australia, more than 4800 Lexus IS250s were recalled in February to remedy a potential fuel leak due to a fuel pressure sensor that could work loose and there was an earlier recall for computer tweaks to overcome a braking problem in the Prius hybrid.

Recall vehicle numbers: 24,222
Toyota Camry V6: 11,235
Toyota Avalon: 3591
Toyota Kluger: 6966
Lexus ES300: 365
Lexus RX330: 2065