Steering wheel violently shakes all by itself when cold.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by atikovi, Dec 6, 2007.

  1. atikovi

    atikovi Junior Member

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    I've had this '02 about 2 years and it has 141K miles. Just in the past few days since the weather has gotten colder, the steering wheel shakes right and left quite violently all by itself after starting the car in the morning, putting it into gear and moving a few inches. Anybody with the same symptoms on a higher mileage car like this one?
     
    #1 atikovi, Dec 6, 2007
  2. HOVZOOM

    HOVZOOM New Member

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    Yes I do. Bought a used 2002 about a month ago. There was an extended warrantee issued for some 2001 & 2002 models for this problem. Call your local dealer with your VIN and ask them if you’re covered. You may not be because I think there was some sort of time limit on the extended warrantee (5 years). BTW, my VIN was never covered.
     
    #2 HOVZOOM, Dec 6, 2007
  3. atikovi

    atikovi Junior Member

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    So what did it need and how much did it cost? My car was first sold 1/2002 so it's almost 6 years old.
     
    #3 atikovi, Dec 6, 2007
  4. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    The position-sensing pots in the steering torque sensor are known
    to get flakey with time. Not sure what the fix does other than
    to replace them [along with other largish chunks of the steering
    system], but if you're really enterprising you could probably
    get the unit apart and take some deoxit to the things.
    .
    If it gets so bad you can't drive it safely, pull the EPS fuse
    to disable the assist motor so you can at least limp it to the
    dealer..
    .
    _H*
     
    #4 hobbit, Dec 6, 2007
  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    The shakes

    HOVZOOM said it right.

    The official time limit is 5 years from the vehicle's original in-service date, and the official VIN limit is not known to me.

    The entire steering rack would be replaced, and if Toyota will not do that for free or reasonable, then another option would be to consider a salvage 2002 or preferably 2003, preferably not crushed in the front.

    As far as accessing the potentiometers as Hobbit suggests, IFixEm and I tried on a failed one in Oly, WA, summer '06. To get in as far as the pots required some destructive disassembly. Sorry to say, this is not be best design ever to spring from Toyota's drawing boards.

    Sorry to also say, apparently there is a 19.5 kb limit for pdf attachments (now?). The copy I have of the power steering watrranty enhancement letter is 51 kb or so. Perhaps someone can advise me how to make this available on PriusChat?
     
    #5 tochatihu, Dec 6, 2007
  6. HOVZOOM

    HOVZOOM New Member

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    I have not had mine fixed. It really only does this about once a week, but you are right, cold has something to do with it.

    I purchased my 2002 with an extended warrantee purchased by the previous owner that is still in force. I'm in the process of transferring the warrantee to my name then I will present what I have to Toyota to see if the steering problem is covered.
     
    #6 HOVZOOM, Dec 7, 2007
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