Severe steering wheel shaking, or should I just sell the car and be done with it?

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by elendilmir, Dec 1, 2011.

  1. elendilmir

    elendilmir Member

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    The saga thus far is that this summer I had a power steering failure. I ended up getting a remanufactured steering rack installed at a local shop. It failed after a few weeks (severe wheel shaking when cutting the wheel to the right and throwing a PS code). I took it to my dealer, who cleared the codes and told me that the replacement rack had failed. It had a warrentee, so I got a replacement from the remanufacturer and had it installed by another garage (Hillmuth of Baltimore). I brought the car home tuesday night. This morning I had the same problem and lost my PS.

    Is it possible that the problem is a signal processing one? I just don't want to put in the 3K or so that the dealership wants for a new rack on a car with nearly 150K miles.

    How do you go about trading in a car that is displaying codes?
     
    #1 elendilmir, Dec 1, 2011
  2. Michgal007

    Michgal007 Senior Member

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    I really don't know what to say, but sorry for your troubles. Did you check it with other dealers in the area? :(
     
    #2 Michgal007, Dec 1, 2011
  3. Tickwood

    Tickwood Active Member

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    Wrong Forum - this is a Gen 1 problem
     
    #3 Tickwood, Dec 1, 2011
  4. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Elen, I am so sorry to hear that. All indications are that it is the rack, still. Did you call Hillmuth back and let them know? Definitely do that. They are in a tough spot, because you sourced the part, but I can tell you, a good shop will want to know if something didn't work. Further recourse might be getting a refund from the seller of the reman rack, and getting a known good one salvage from some place like adoptapart.com.

    You can get way more for your car on Craigslist or ebay, $2-3K. A lot of people are looking for them to buy as fixers, or someone might want to pull the EMPS relay and drive it without ps. Anyway, your car is much more valuable as a private sale than as a trade-in.
     
    #4 seilerts, Dec 1, 2011
  5. elendilmir

    elendilmir Member

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    Yes, I called them this morning, they're going to have a look at it on monday. I would be willing to drive it without PS. Are there safety issues with this, or is the steering just harder? I don't really do a lot of precision driving, and the rest of the car is great.
     
    #5 elendilmir, Dec 1, 2011
  6. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    The steering is harder when the car is moving slowly but should be fine at highway speeds, just a little stiffer. You'll notice more when making right turns at city street intersections.
     
    #6 seilerts, Dec 1, 2011
  7. elendilmir

    elendilmir Member

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    Seilerts:
    I did some wandering around the forum, and it looks like all I have to do to kill off the power steering (a last resort to be sure) is to pull out the relay. Is this the case? Do you know if it will keep displaying an error on the main display? I really don't want to sell this car right now, and think that it has more than 2K worth of driving in her.
     
    #7 elendilmir, Dec 1, 2011
  8. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Not sure if it is better to remove the fuse or the relay, I'd personally pull the relay, but each are labeled EMPS, and are in the engine compartment fuse box. Either way the error light will come on.
     
    #8 seilerts, Dec 1, 2011
  9. elendilmir

    elendilmir Member

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    might be worth it. I lost the power steering entirely for a while this morning, and it wasn't THAT much of a trial. Far better than the continuous worry.

    Is there a chance that this could be a processing problem? Could it be a symptom of a dying traction battery? I've heard of 12V batteries dying causing problems.
     
    #9 elendilmir, Dec 1, 2011
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