Steering Column Shudders (Vibrates)

Um. I just thought I'd chime in here. I remember my friend talking about this issue once. He is a toyota mechanic and we talk about the Prius a lot. He said the Gen-1 prius' have a known issue with this and it is usually the actual electric motor that does the steering assist that has the problem. Apparently there is a sensor inside the motor which malfunctions. The cure is usually to replace the motor. I don't think the entire R&P assembly needs replacing. In fact, I actually have one of these in my garage somewhere that he removed from a prius. I was going to use it for an electric scooter or something, but never got around to it. It seems even when the sensor goes out, the motor portion of it is unaffected so it still makes a good motor.

 

This theory makes sense to me, as the problem with my prius is only immediatley after start -up and when the weather is cold. A run-down battery is then a weak point, (before the MG has had much time to re-charge it from the cold start, and the 12v battery itself is still cold, and all the ECU's are booting up). The 12v battery I have is a couple of years old but, something ran it down to nothing a while ago and i had to put it on a charger to get going one morning. I called Toyota today and they offered no assistance in paying for a repair.

 

I tried calling Toyota at the end of 2009 and registered a complaint but got nowhere because the dealer said they could not reproduce the steering shudder. Earlier this month I got a recall notice from Toyota to replace pinion shaft nuts. I took my car into a different dealer and explained to the service advisor the shudder problem. The advisor called me later that morning and said Toyta was replacing the entire rack and pinion free of charge. Today I picked up my 2003 Prius. Hopefully, the problem is now fixed. If not, I will report again.