Prius (2001-03) :: Steering Wheel Shaking Violently Back And Forth
Jan 29, 2016
Years and years ago, I had an issue with my trusty '02. The steering wheel would shake VIOLENTLY back and forth. I went round and round with Toyota, but at the end of all the angry phone calls and emails the issue never got fixed, but they paid for an after market steering rack. I wasn't about to pay the 4-5K to get the issue fixed, so I just pulled the PS relay, and have been driving merrily along with no power steering for about 90K miles. I'm now at about 195K.
About a month ago, I noticed some symptoms.
1) some play in the steering.
2) when I went over some bumps, I could really feel the bounce, and it felt like metal bumping into metal.
3) when I punched the accelerator, there was a delay and a "thunk" feeling.
I was coming up on a major servicing, so I took it in to the dealership. They sorted out a few things that I knew were overdue (wheel bearings, battery coolant, transaxle lube), and came to the decision that the steering problem was that I needed a new rack. I told the gobsmacked mechanic that I just happened to have one, and they put it in, and they recalibrated the steering sensor paddles so that I would again have power steering. When I started the car up in the dealership lot, VIOLENT SHAKING. They took it back in, and declared that was because my ignition battery was marginal (which it was), and that a new battery would sort this out. I thus spent far too much money on a new battery. Two days later, wheel starts shaking, and again I pull the relay. All is normal again.
The questions are these:
1) Can that kind of shaking be repaired?
2) Could it really have been a battery issue? (the battery reads a nice even 12.6 and has a wonderful warranty)
3) Was my issue just tie rods the whole time?
In the meantime, I'm going to get 238K (distance from earth to moon) if it kills us all.
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So I have come into ownership of a 2003 Prius and now I'm having issues with the power steering. I contacted Toyota and they told me the recal for the pinions was completed in 2012. Now own in the car I've noticed the steering wheel will start to violently shake and just last week while driving I got the warning triangle and the PS symbol and I lost all power steering. All this happened while driving on a highway. Toyota wanted to charge me 150 to diagnose the problem which I declined and took it to my well trusted mechanic. He told me the rac needs to replace. I've done a lot of research on this problem and have found many people complaining that even after having the recall done, they still had a problem and also were told the rac needs to be replaced.
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I've got 2 identical 01 models with 150-200k miles that are having issues with the steering wheel chattering and shaking occasionally, like a pump is gravitating or something. I've only noticed it at low/no speed when turning the wheel. It shakes for a second or two, then quits. No fault lights on, and no codes pulled with mini vci...
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Recently I notice, when I'm going 60+ and then I need to slowdown, my steering wheel starts violently shacking. Plus I have watch with metal band and it it's making even more noise when it's starts to shake. Sometimes it's not that much to slowdown, but that shaking is too much. It's not ABS, because when ABS working you feel it in brake pedal, here is in steering wheel.
Also, I would like to mention the fact that I need to change my brakes! Now I don't know if its because of my brakes or some other problem.
Not that I need it, but this though keeps popping up every now and then. My speedometer shows 160, but I can go only 125! I was told that its some kind of chip that prevents to go higher. Is there a way to take that limit off? This question is purely for my curiosity.
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I'm almost at a lose here. I have a 01 1.8t golf and at 60 the steering wheel shakes and at 80+ i feel it in the whole car. I've already replaced both axles, wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints, new coilovers, new wheels and tires, and passenger side control arm. There's not much more I can replace besides hubs and driver control arm or do u think it could be defective parts like one of the new axles.
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My car has shaken from the start but I thought it was because it was a small car that was a great price so this is how it ran. Today it started shaking so badly up through the steering wheel that I was afraid to drive it. Still am. I got the tire pressure checked, the wheel balancing checked - all ok. Took it into the dealership (car is still under warrantee) and they think it's likely the drive train/drive shaft.
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I got in, stepped on the brake pedal and press the power button. Then the Prius ICE started, it started clanging and violently shaking the entire car. The clanging was sounded like metal on metal or something, it was loud and it was like the engine was seizing up. I stepped outside and the whole front end was buckling up and down. From my perspective, it seemed like the car wanted to lurch forward if I didn't have the parking brake engaged. I had Park engaged and also the parking brake on. I thought it would go away but it persisted. I turned off the car and immediately restarted. When the ICE started the 2nd time it felt a bit rough but finally the clanging noise went away. I didn't have time to look on my scanguage for any codes during the event. Did this cause any permanent damage?
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My 07 prius with 190k started shaking violently when going down hill if I press the gas or brake at all is goes a way suddenly, this happens only around the high 40's to low 50 mph range and once at 75, this happened just after my tires where balanced and rotated brought it back they re balanced them and said they balanced out perfectly and the problem still protested. I drive on dirt roads all the time and i hit a big pot hole earlier last spring but the issue just started after the balance a week ago.
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I occasionally experience steering wheel vibration no matter what speed I'm traveling. It starts out as a small shake and eventually becomes nearly impossible to hold onto the steering wheel. On two separate occasions, the brakes have gone out.The car has passed PA state safety inspection and I have taken it to 3 different mechanics and no one can figure out what the problem is. I have had new tires and spark plugs installed, keep up with regular oil changes, etc.
2004 Toyota Corolla S, 4 cylinders, 1.81 l engine, 240,000 miles, manual transmission..
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This summer, my steering rack failed, and I had it replaced with a remanufacutured steering rack. All went well, until a few weeks ago I started feeling a pulsing effect when turning, usually when turning right. On a few occasions, the shaking has become severe. It is a back-and-forth effect, about three times a second. It is bad enough that it has triggered a power steering error on two occasions. I took it to the garage who installed the rack, asking them to have a look at it, and they found nothing. Because the effect is regular, I am assuming that I am feeling the 12V power assist malfunctioning or reacting to faulty input.
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I bought a new 2010 (Gen III) Prius IV one week ago. I have driven it less than 200 miles. Last night, I experienced a few seconds of steering wheel shaking while driving at highways speeds. I assumed I had hit uneven pavement. At no point was it difficult to turn the wheel. But after the shaking, the car seemed to sometimes drift to one or the other edge of the lane. I chalked that up to unfamiliarity with the car and to rain and darkness. Today, I read Forum posts that described the lighter touch that usually works and the importance of wheel alignment.
After the shaking, another 45 minutes of driving, and a half hour parked, I headed home on a slower road. That is when my wife noticed that the Electric Power Steering warning light was on. We are both pretty sure it was off before that. This morning, I pulled out of the garage and back in, and turned the wheel both ways as it moved. The light did not come on.
I called the dealer to discuss what had occurred. I made a service appointment for Monday so they can check it out. Someone in a Gen II forum (where I mistakenly posted this at first) advised me to pull over and take an evidence photo of the light if it comes on again.
The PS warning light wouldn't be too surprising to see in a Prius driven tens of thousands of miles. If yours ever came on when your Prius had low mileage, I'd be curious to know the outcome. I misidentified a benign icon as the EPS warning light.
The mechanic became suspicious when he couldn't find any code or any trouble. We sketched the icon we remembered seeing for the service supervisor. He explained that it was the cruise control light. I either forgot I had turned cc on or I had pushed it accidentally when I operated the wipers.
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I just noticed today that when I let of the gas my steering wheel will shake a little bit and when I let off the brake after I come to a stop light my steering wheel would shake. Why the could be happening. Could it be from a bad axle, alignment, something wrong with the brakes, bent wheel, balancing, or something.
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Have a 2004 Fx4. Lately its been shaking violently when i accelerate. When I turn the overdrive off it stops.
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I now have 14500 miles on my R and took it to the dealer Monday because the brakes are shaking the steering wheel again. After I had my R for 3 months and a little over 2000 miles it was taken in with this problem and the dealer turned the rotors. Everything was fine for about 3 more months and now had 5000 miles the brakes started to shake and grind real bad. I took it in again and this time the rotors were replaced. It was good till a month ago and they started to screach when I stopped and shake the steering wheel when I touched the brakes. So this is the 3rd time I have had brake problems and 2nd time the rotors need to be replaced. They can't tell me why this is happening. I was asked if I do a lot of hard driving, and I told them that I average almost 25 mpg and you don't get that driving super hard. I drive 76 miles round trip to work and all but 4 miles is highway with only 3 stop signs so it is easy to average that. I don't know how long the warranty will keep covering rotors if they can't find the cause. I love my R but I am not going to pay $700 - 800 or more for new rotors every 8000 miles.
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I am out of town at the moment and my wife has the car. She is worried about driving. I am thinking it is some type of sensor etc. If I knew what it was I could have her take it in and I could monitor the repair process.
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I had a problem with my steering wheel shaking at various speeds. Eventually I found a bad inner tie rod and replaced it. The shaking is gone, but whenever I get over 70 mph there is still a very small vibration. I had all 4 wheels aligned after changing the tie rod. Tires are brand new, less than a week old. The mechanic checked my ball joints while doing the alignment and said they were good. Could my struts be causing the vibration? They need replaced, not sure if the previous owner ever replaced them and the car has 225,000 miles.
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I am currently running 8mm ECS spacers in the front and 17.5mm ECS spacers in the rear. My Summer set up is still stock BBS RC's, but my winter wheels are Lenso's.
Last winter was my first winter running with the Lenso's and had no issues. This past weekend I swapped out the BBS's for the Lenso's, and now I am feeling vibration above 60MPH. I felt no vibration with the BBS's. I just took them in to get balanced (maybe a weight fell off-idk), and they were within 1/4 of 100% balanced. They then thought it may be the spacers I'm running so they cleaned them up, but said that it didn't work.
My alignment is also spot on-so that's not an issue either. I am at a loss as to what would make me feel that vibration after just changing out the wheels.
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My 1.8t gli is giving me this issue, when braking (specially hard) my steering wheel shakes side to side, my rotors got changed less than 20,000 miles ago (all of them) and they seem fine right now.
Could this be my Tie Rod ends? The car has 110,000 miles on it, and i know some bushings if not all need to be changed, which I am gonna be installing when i put on the Raxles i just got.
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