Prius (2001-03) :: Steering Wheel Start To Violently Shake While Driving Got Warning Triangle
Nov 23, 2015
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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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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I just had vehicle inspected and replaced the wheel hub assemblies on the front Left and Right wheels in order to pass. Now while driving strong shaking occurs occasionally when over 60+ mph or at any time after a hit a bump in the road. have to slow down below 30 for it to stop.
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I have a 2000 Grand AM cylin. Recently I was driving when my car started to shake violently. I drove it to the side of the road to a parking lot then it died. I started it up again and is ran but shacking a lot again. Once I got home, 3 blocks away the car died again. I tried to start it again but it would only turn but not start the engine. I have checked the gas pump, motor mounts, oil and anti freez for oil. I did check the timing chain but I don't know much on how it should be.
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I have a 2005 dodge Dakota when I'm driving the steering wheel will shake randomly.This isn't happening constantly when driving and it will stop after I make a turn. In addition it will happen randomly regardless of what speed I'm driving. What's going on?
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As I'm driving down the highway my steering wheel tends to shake a little bit. My tires are fine but are offly loud . They are balanced and all but just sound loud u can hear them rolling inside the cab sounds maybe like if I had mud tires but I don't they are all terrains. . I was told maybe the bearings but I don't know.
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For the past few months when the vehicle is cold (by "cold" I dont mean physically cold, just mean it has been sitting all night in my driveway and it's still 90+ degrees outside) and I start driving, I seem to have this shimmy or shake in the tires/steering/steering wheel. Once my car seems to "warm up" (driving a mile or two) it goes away and my car is extremely smooth.
Could it be tires (I've tried rotating)? Suspension? Wheel bearings? I'm lost for even imagining what it could be. I don't believe it is engine/trans related, as it idles/revs just fine and shift perfectly...
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I was on the highway yesterday when the red triangle went off and the screen said Problem. I babied my 2008 Prius to the dealer. They said the 12v battery was bad. I should have just gotten the yellow top in last week like I wanted but oh well. Here is the problem, today it did it again. It first happened at 70 mph but today it did it first at 15 mph then pretty much stayed on until I did not accelerate for a while. No noticeable performance issues, just the warning indicator. I did notice the noises after shutdown are sounding different than before last week. I also put a code reader on it both without running and on a test drive and no codes showed. What is going on?
More info: Just hit 100,250 miles. Purchased on March 17, 2008. Went in last week before the 100,000 miles for a check up and ended up with $1,000 for a coolant pump (both now, other coolant pump was replaced within the last 6 months). Also got: break fluid, belt, break alignment, oil change, tires (this I was expecting hardly passed state inspection in March), possibly something else.
I have been doing the oil changes since 15,000 miles, filters, pcv (or pvc whichever), all normal items. Problem free until I have them do a check now issues. So to recap non normal items done: blower motor in 2009, radio replacement in 2008, coolant pump in Mayish, other coolant pump and 12 v battery last week. Read more : [URL] ....
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A 2001 Prius is getting a warning triangle. No check engine light, and with my OBDII scanner, it shows there are no codes. I can erase and the triangle goes out, but it comes back on eventually. It seems only if the car is driven a long time/distance it comes on, indicating some heat issue perhaps.
The 12v battery is good, the radiator coolant is good, the inverter coolant is good and flowing. The washer fluid hose is broken, could THAT give the death triangle? There must be a way to have the cars display whats wrong with the fancy software and touch screen?
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I have a 2001 Prius with 150k on it. It has been giving me the triangle warning light and the car ! warning light. I can start the car and drive it, but sometimes when I press the accelerator the gas engine just dies and will not kick back in, unless I stop, turn off the car and restart it. (Issue seems to occur more in hot weather, could be a coincidence) When I start it the engine will run rough and shutter for less than a min, and then run normally.
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So I was driving for a couple of hours today in my recently acquired 2001 Prius, when the red warning triangle and the check engine lights came on. The car seemed to still drive fine (70 ish mph cruising). HV Battery? P3000 P3020 Error codes.....
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About a month ago my 2009 Prius - 35500 miles - started acting up intermittently. When I first start the car I am getting a red warning triangle for just a few seconds and I feel/hear a soft thump under my foot that is on the brake pedal, there is a few second pause - the warning light goes away and the car starts just fine. This does not usually recur until the car has shut off for a few hours or so. I have had the car to my Toyota dealer twice and they could not reproduce the warning light even after it had been sitting all nite. That was about a month ago - and the problem has been very intermittent. Then yesterday we had a pretty cool morning and when I started the car I got the red warning triangle and a Warning on my screen -- something to the effect that "There is a Park and Transmission Lock" - I turned the car off and started again almost immediately - no warning triangle - no warning message. It happened again once this morning.
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My wife has a '03 that has been great. No issues. I am a excellent mechanic, on conventional cars and motors. Here's my story:
Bought the car used and working last week. Put in a new 12v Group 26 battery w/conversion. I verified the 12v battery was at 12.8v and when engine was running, 13.6v to charge the battery. Car was starting and driving wonderful for about 600 miles. No shuttering, no shaky starts. Mileage was about 38.6. Anyway, yesterday was driving and all of a sudden the warning Triangle comes on, Hybrid system icon comes up and the engine goes off. I was able to drive the car about 1/2 mile on the traction battery back to my work.
It happened to have a code reader handy and it reads a P3125, Inverter. I realize there are sub codes that further diagnose the issue, but I don't have that type of OBDII reader although mine is a very expensive model. Anyway, I reset the code and got the car to start. Motor begins to go up in RPM and throws the code again. I shut it off, reset the code, try to start the car and I feel it slightly jump forward, engine does not start, then throws the warning code again. I did notice the traction battery is at 25%. I do this two more times trying to get the engine to start before I call the tow company. BTW, the car rolled easy, so I don't think its the MG2 is bad, although correct me if i'm wrong but doesn't Mg1 start the engine?
Oh, incidentally, also the ignition key does not release either. The key release solenoid is energized unless I unplug the 12v battery, then I can get my key out.
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I replaced my hybrid battery of my NHW10 a year ago. now recently it shows the warning triangle. Once it went off after a long drive but now its permanent. is there a way to Diagnose what is the cause of this? If its a Hybrid battery issue, will it go off if i replace the bad cells?
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This afternoon, after driving about 150 miles, I came home and shut off my 2001 Prius. It was sitting for about 20 minutes before I turned it back on to drive off. Almost immediately, the hybrid warning light came on on the MFD, the red exclamation mark light illuminated, as well as the check engine light, and the motor shut off. I popped the hood, and could hear a high pitched squeal coming from near the inverter. I called my dealer to ask the service department what I should do, and they just told me to bring it in and they will take a look at it. I live over an hour away, so I don't want to bring it there if I can avoid it. I then shut it off and let it sit for a few hours.
After reading about the possibility of the auxiliary battery being bad, I went and turned the Prius on, and then shut it off several times to reset the hybrid warning light (I had to do so in order to access the aux battery information through the MFD). It turned on without incident, and shut off fine, and after being reset the hybrid warning light shut off, as well as the red triangle light. Then, I went through the process of pulling up the battery voltage information through the MFD.
With the car off, and the lights and fans off, the battery voltage read about 10.0-10.5 V. With the lights and fan on, the voltage dropped to about 9.5 V. After getting those readings, I drove it down the road a little ways, just going about 20 mph. It seemed to work fine. The check engine light is still illuminated. With the motor running, the voltage reading was 13.2 V, and then when I got back from my test drive and shut it off, the voltage hovered at 10.6 V with the lights and fan on.
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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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I have a bad wheel bearing but on the highway my steering wheel shakes. It is only on the highway not down residential streets. I'm pretty sure it is the driver's side wheel bearing. I already balanced my wheels and everything.
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A few days ago the PS light along with the Triangle came on while my partner was driving. We've been noticing a slight shimmy with the steering wheel while backing up only, until this issue came up. Otherwise we've seen no other issues with the steering while driving.
When we took the car, which has 167,000 miles on it, to Toyota, we walked away with a $3,770.00 estimate to replace the power steering system.
Some of you noted earlier that you continued to drive your cars when you noticed the PS having issues. One guy said he did it for 30K after the first warning. I'm wondering, how did you get the PS symbol to go away? (The dealer reset ours, I'm wondering about if it comes back.) Are you still driving with the issue?
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On my 2001 Prius, while driving down the road the red triangle comes on and the ICE drops down to idle and the car slows down to 29mph. If I floor the gas peddle the car may or may not pick up speed slowly but if I let off of the gas peddle the least little bit it will slow down to 29mph. If I stop and turn the car off and then back on the triangle is still there but the car runs fine. After turning the car on and off 2 or 3 times the triangle disappears.
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My 2001 won't start. When the key is turned, the system starts up and the hybrid system initializes, there are 3 clicks in the dash, and the check engine light stays on, without the engine even turning over. I had a mechanic look at it cursorily and he said it looks like the hybrid system is fine, the signal to start the engine isn't resulting in the engine starting. He said it was probably the starter or a fuse to the starter, but the gen 1 Prius doesn't have a starter, so I don't know that I can trust his diagnosis.
The 12v battery is brand new (3 months old) and is an aftermarket deep cycle battery. Also, it has been very cold here. The triangle of death doesn't appear, so I am hoping that it isn't something in the hybrid system. It did this off and on before it stopped starting at all. I was also getting the turtle intermittently when it was giving me occasional problems. Turning the car off and on a couple times usually made this go away. The car has 154k on it. I am thinking it might be the ignition starter switch, but I'm not sure.
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I know there has been much talk about steering wheel shake between 70-80mph. I have the shakes at 70mph. But, I'm wondering why my service department (Boucher VW in WI) can't drive my car up to 70mph so they can feel the shake. The service manager said they absolutely cannot go over 65mph. So ofcourse they can't verify the shake and in turn won't balance my new front tires properly (VW replacements). Am I losing my mind here -- I can't have a car that doesn't shake at highway speeds? How to get them properly balanced through VW service?
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