squeaky steering wheel in cold weather

you are correct, my bad. old habits I guess, I checked every reservoir I could find under the hood without thinking twice about it, definitely was something else.

 

popped up again this morning, video attached (apologies for quality). 32 degrees this morning. What's odd is the noise didn't pop up until like 45 minutes into the drive (same situation last time) - you would think it would happen more in the beginning before the car "warms up". Tough to tell in the video, but I could almost create the noise moving the steering wheel a bit, but it would also happen on its own too, and I never even left my lane the whole time I had the noise. Does sound a bit like an electronic chirp, like something is sort of misfiring?

I had Toyota take a look at steering area when I brought in for 5k maintenance, but they couldn't find anything, and I had no video to show them at the time. Maybe I'll have more luck if I show them some videos this time?

 

Noise came back again today in 55 degrees, looks like it is not exclusively cold weather related for my case. Can't wait for a major repair on a brand new car!

 

Hello guys,

Do you have any updates on this issue? Any word from the Toyota dealership?
I have the same problem on my Auris 2018. After a cold night, I start the car, leave the heating on for 10 minute and then start the journey. 20-25 minutes into the drive the steering wheel starts squeaking and at the same time it slightly locks in that position.
I've had the people at my local dealership look at it and they said they could not find anything wrong so far. We did a test run also but because it wasn't done in the conditions mentioned above they could not replicate the behavior.
I sent them videos of the behavior and they said they will contact the importer and warranty people and that they will have to also replicate the issue.
I am still waiting on an answer from them and thought maybe you were luckier in finding out what the problem is.

Thanks!

 

Here is a short video of the problem:

 

Thanks @luiset83! Your posts and notes have been a huge help to me so far. I was able to replicate the noise with a tech so they are having corporate look into the issue. I also gave them the service notes from when you had yours fixed. Appreciate you taking the time to post all of your information and the issue!

 

Thanks guys for the posts! Since I last posted I took the car to the dealership twice. The first time they were not able to reproduce the problem in a 30min drive test so they asked me to leave it for two hours with them, on a different day. In the mean time I've sent them my videos and this thread. The second time, the diagnose technician was able to reproduce the problem, after which they contacted the manufacturer. Long story short, yesterday they called me in and replaced the steering column and the power steering electric motor. Hopefully this fixed the problem for good.

 

^ Good news. This should serve to legitimatize the squeaky steering that others have experienced. Hope the solution works.

 

We haven't been able to travel and use the Prime in cold weather this winter, so we have not had a recurrence of this issue.
I'm hoping it is something that "broke in" and it won't come back, as we don't want the dealer to tear into a new car to replace the steering column for a very intermittent issue, that is not currently happening.

Also, bumping this thread, as it is cold in many places and maybe people will see/read this and report if they are also experiences issues.

 

Just experiencing exactly the same issue on my 2020 Prime LE at 850 miles. @luiset83, is everything good after the repair? It’s been pretty cold these days.