2002 Prius needs new steering rack at 98K?

I question the need to replace the fuel tank in 12/08 unless the tech had checked the fuel line pressure and found it to be below spec.

Regarding your steering gear, if the only problem is noise and you haven't had the steering wheel jerk around by itself, then I suggest deferring a replacement until you have driveability issues.

Once your Prius is out of warranty, there are several components whose failure will lead to a hefty four-digit repair: transaxle, traction battery, inverter, steering gear, catalytic converter with HCAC chamber, MFD. If you have to depend upon dealer service then you'll be out big bucks.

In the Bay Area, Luscious Garage in SF and Art's Automotive in Berkeley have strong Prius service reputations.

 

If the steering assist 'cuts out' you'll know it, both by feel and the warning on the little TV. But with noise as the only symptom there I suggest you simply have the steering mechanicals inspected by a (any) shop familiar with modern front wheel drive cars.

If the mechanicals look OK then you can drive w/o concern. At least until Act II.

 

If the noise is sufficiently annoying so that you are willing to pay $1,300 to make it go away, then go ahead and have the steering gear replaced now.

Otherwise, if you can live with the noise, I recommend that you defer the repair until you have driveability issues, such as having the steering wheel twitch violently... The problem will get worse as time passes, so you'll have plenty of opportunity to take action.

 

I am unaware of aftermarket versions of this assembly. Perhaps it was from salvage, or an attempt at a rebuild? As a guess, an ECU can only calm this down if it uses a really long time constant in determining the sensor signals. If the shakes return, I don't have any ideas, other than taking action against Manny, Moe and Jack. Very sorry.

 

Ok. Aloha. I now find myself at actII -now what? I see that I am not alone in being frustrated with my dealership. I took the car in three times and was told it was ok. diagnostic when I complained of rattling came up clean. Then I am told the whole rack and pinion needs to be replaced (2k for the part). have been driving it and is just getting tighter and tighter - is that what you meant about Act II? if so -is it replaceable?
thanks

 

Does tighter and tighter mean that more effort is required to steer? If so, this means that the power assist is offline. There should also be an error display. Re-starting the car should bring back power assist at least temporarily.

Toyota does not replace this system piecewise - it's the whole thing and now you know their price. Used ones are available and you might consider that option.

Kauai is a beautiful island but perhaps expensive to get heavy things shipped in. Also I imagine that you have one and only one Toyota shop in Lihue, so you pretty much have to deal with those guys.

 

ca02, if you're wondering how the shop will respond to the current situation you might as well take it in and find out.

There is a computer (ECU) associated with the power steering assist, but I really don't know if it is typically replaced along with the electromechanicals. AFAIK there has been no clear indication from Toyota that they ever altered the ECU program for the 01-03 model.

I was all set to report that www.car-part.com has a bunch of these (as takeouts) but at the moment I see only one listed. LKQonline is another potential source.

 

hi folks, i am wondering an average in your experience how long it takes for the steering gear to go completely out. i am from eugene, oregon down here in santa cruz on "vacation" . coming down here my warning lights went on, PS, the "main" with battery sign, and the triangle with the ! in the middle. i stopped and the nearest dealer said it was the invertor pump which was replaced for $400. got back on the road. 60 miles later all warning lights were on again, . go off a few minutes later and then about a 1/2 hour later back on, power steering is not working. ugh. by this time i am on the cali coast no where near any toyota dealer so i continue on to my friends house, and turn off the car. then i move it 5 minutes later and no lights are on now. when i bring it to the santa cruz toyota dealer, they tell me the steering gear rack needs to be relplaced. a used one is the only option as i am a low-income single mama. so, it looks like i have to drive back up to eugene because i don't think i can find a good used part in time as i am only here until monday. (today is thursday)
i am worried about driving back up. any advice?
thanks!

 

Interesting symptoms

That should have included replacing the inverter coolant. Check your receipt to see if coolant was included. The problem is bleeding the coolant can be tricky.

Open the hood and there is a reservoir to the left of the inverter. It should have a pinkish or redish colored fluid equal with the fill line. With the car turned on, you should see coolant flowing.

If the coolant bleeding was insufficient, you may be low.

After three restarts, the car will clear the error indications but the codes will remain in memory.

I hope they checked the inverter coolant level and flow ... you would think.

Did the receipt include any codes?

If you drove to and from the dealer, it should be OK although hard to steer. The power circuit to the power steering ECU shows:

• 50 A fuse
• EMPS relay

Assuming they checked these, it might be useful to find them before heading back, especially the fuse. If you have a steering problem on the road, pulling the 50 A fuse would be a safe thing to do and continue on your trip.

If you open the hood, on the left rear is the fuse box with the 50 A, EMPS Fuse and EMPS relay. When you get a chance, see if you can find it and for grins, see how to open it and inspect the fuse. The EMPS relay is also there.

Bob Wilson

 

When the power steering assist went out, did you have any trouble controlling the car?

Did you notice unusual vibration or twitching in the steering wheel?

The issue with the steering gear is that the torque sensor potentiometers buried within, which tell the power steering ECU how much power assist to provide, are beginning to fail. This results in loss of power assist and the steering wheel often begins to twitch.

Sometimes, if you rotate the steering wheel full counter-clockwise to full clockwise, and repeat several times, that will clean the torque sensor potentiometers and give you temporary relief.

As long as you are aware of the potential loss of power assist and steering wheel twitching, and can control the car regardless, then you can safely drive the car back to Oregon. Good luck.

 

Hi Patrick

Just jumping in on this thread as my 2001 Prius power steering is very, very heavy. There’s definately some power assistance there but twirling the wheel around for parking is far more arduous than is should be. I don’t have any twitching but am wondering if there is any connection with the cause / effect you mention above re the torque sensors / power steering ECU. I’m on 111k miles and (touches wood and strokes unicorn) my wonderful car performs very well.

Interestingly enough, when turning the car off, the assistance suddenly increases to what I would consider to be normal levels; that moment when you remove the key and can adjust the wheel to get the steering column lock to catch. At that point the effort needed is effortless, literally one finger. But in normal, low speed parking it’s very heavy. Naturally when on the move the car’s speed helps lighten the load but I still get the sense that the steering assistance is quite minimal.

Anyway, sorry for the long ramble. Hoping someone has some bright ideas. Thanks in advance

Gary

 

Interesting ... that wasn't something I had noticed when mine was acting up, but maybe I just didn't notice. I would pull off the road and just turn the key off and back on to get my assist back.

I had noticed, on earlier occasions, the way the Gen 1 does maintain assist for a brief while after being turned off, to make your final adjustment easier. (My Gen 3 does not, the steering goes heavy immediately on power-off. But Gen 3 doesn't lock the steering column, so you don't have any final adjustment to make.)

The Gen 1 steering ECU controls its own power relay, just so it can do that trick for you. (Another thing I had noticed was that, after power-off, it will stay powered up to power the torque sensor for even longer—a minute or two—than it continues providing assist power. That provides a nice interval where you can twist the wheel and measure torque sensor voltages without being thrown off by the assist trying to respond to them while you're measuring.)

So maybe they built it to wake back up for those last moments after power-off, if it had given up earlier.

We're well past the extended warranty now, so the options might be limited to looking for a new ($$$), used (???), remanufactured (I think Cardone offers one, or did) steering rack, or trying to clean up your own torque sensor:



You might be a pioneering PriusChat experimenter if you try, but I think it would turn out (except for the exhausting effort of getting the rack out of the car and the sensor out of the rack) to be not much different from cleaning off the other potentiometer-based sensors in the Gen 1 that get noisy over time, like the accelerator or the heater servos.

I have a GC product called Jiffy Bath that can be rubbed on with a cotton swab, to clean and then leave a very light conductive lubricant behind. If there appears to have been a slightly heavier grease used originally, one might consider Motorcraft XG-12, which isn't hard to get, after first cleaning the contacts.

I've never tried cleaning up a rack, I guarantee nothing, you're on your own.

 

My idea would be to check the fuse and relay described in post 16 and if those are good, obtain a replacement steering rack.