Sorry, but that IS a recall if I ever I have seen one !.
You can’t get anymore serious than THAT in my honest opinion !.
Complete steering failure is on the same level as a brake failure.
There must have been play at the steering wheel prior to this complete failure surely !.
One of of members who leave down under, has had the same UJ failure.
So, we know of two cars within this group that has failed with the same problem.
A failure like this on a car so young, is pretty much unheard of.
I believe the steering system is made by Bosch, so I am a little surprised by this I have to say.
Can you imagine the face of the tech who looks at this for the first time !.
I think the expression is ……. “OMG”.
Just been looking at the photos again.
At first, I was wondering if one of the UJ cups, had lost the retaining cir-clip, that would have allowed the cup to fall out, then it would allowed the UJ to fail.
But no, after studying the photo, all cups are present, but one cup has discarded ALL of its needle roller bearings ( and grease ) and allowed the UJ to disengage from the UJ yoke.
The cir-clip and cup is still in place, but has failed in dramatic style !.
My guess would be a failure when the UJ was first assembled and some of the needle bearings where pushed out.
UJ joints rarely fail if they assembled correctly and have sufficient lubrication.
