CATASTROPHIC:Why did my Intermediate Power Steering Shaft strip and cause complete steering failure?

So the splines on the rack are stripped this will be clearly evident there's also a indented curvature milled in the center of the spline so that when you put it on and the bolt goes through it kind of locks it in place I cannot imagine how this could become stripped at even if it was loose stripping would be highly unlikely or is the slip joint that's the part in your picture is that stripped inside of it I don't know that either one of those is truly sacrificial even when the bolts not in and you slide it up it's pretty reasonable and then when you slide the bolt in and it's seating properly the yolk can't drop out or the rack can't drop out if it bolts came loose and it was hanging or something The bolt through the yolk will hold it and that is indeed extremely interesting I would guess something had to be loose or work its way loose but where is the damage It's either on the yolk internally or externally on the stub that the yolk slides up on maybe it wasn't slid up all the way but I don't know how the boat would go through I'd have to see pictures of the top of the rack and the inside of the yolk I can't imagine this would really damage the rack itself but you have it there and you're looking at it and replacing it so I'm guessing the stub the yolk slides on to is damaged and the internals of the slip joint are okay should be a lot of silver showing if there's where there should be some dust right there on the parts something

 

I advise you to contact Toyota officials to find out if repairs are possible.
There was a TSB on the steering issue. It is possible that your car has not undergone these works and this can be done for free.

 

I wonder what the recall was for exactly. Wild

 

I learned about this recall when I had my hybrid system pump replaced. My car was subject to two recalls.

 

So when you had your inverter pump replaced they told you about some recalls on the steering interesting I mean I have to go look it up and never hurt such a thing. I'm sure they're billions of recalls just not many people get notified of or whatever I mean this is a 19 years in. I would think if the steering was going to fall off by anytime it would have been in the first five to seven years even for Prius people that don't go anywhere but yeah that's interesting so I guess at the factory maybe they left the bolt loose because a bolt Just falling out of that yolk assembly that's under that plastic cover inside of the car where you are Man that's just highly unlikely unless it wasn't at all tight to begin with and then when it unloosens it has to fall out completely so the slip yoke can come loose and fall off strip something I just can't even see I guess the iron slip joint could strip what looks to be aluminum nub on top of the rack I guess that is I haven't really looked at a Prius rack I'm not sure what sticks up to connect to the yolk That's some wild stuff. because we have beat the crap out of our steering systems in the four we have The bolts and the yolk are very tight when I had to loosen one I almost strip the 10 mm I think it is

 

Are you the original owner?
Has the car been in any other accidents than what shows up in the photo?
Was the recall addressed improperly by a previous owner?

You should at least be able to answer the last question by looking up the vehicle's service history with the mother ship.

Even 19 years in, they're still on the hook for repairing a recall.....or repairing a botched repair.

Good Luck!

 

there was a recall on my 08, bad bolt or something

 

Yeah I was just curious what it was It must be a bolt inside of the car because they're not really accessible outside of the car