Steering wheel chattering/shaking sometimes on 01

You're describing the well-known Gen 1 noisy torque sensor issue, and if you catch it at the right time your Mini VCI probably will show you a C1513 or one of the nearby torque sensor codes. There was a very generous warranty extension for it all the way to December 2013, but that's not much consolation to you.

There are a lot of threads around here for how to deal with it, you'll have no trouble searching them up. For a long time, the only options being discussed were (1) replace the entire steering gear assembly, or (2) do something to it noninvasively, like Bob Wilson's experimental whisker-burning idea. That was because no one had posted how to get to the torque sensor itself, inside the gear assembly, without cutting wires or otherwise damaging it.

Earlier this year I finally broke down and bought a cheap bad one to work out how it comes apart and it's not that bad really. The little plastic wedge was what was stumping people before. So there might be a third option if you have enough patience, the same thing I do with various other resistive sensors in the car when they get noisy ... just wipe 'em down with Jiffy Bath on a cotton swab and put 'em back together. (But then, most of those other trouble spots are still way easier to get to than the steering torque sensor. Even if getting to the sensor in the steering gear turns out not to be so bad, getting the whole assembly out of the car is still a PITA.)

That should give you some ideas and choices, anyway.

-Chap

 

First, welcome, greasemonkey007. Chap has summarized the limited options to make your NHW11s fully functional following this problem. Toyota Inc has done all they ever will to help, I suppose.

Keeping these two units on the road seems to be greasemonkey007' goal, one I would support. The simplest response is to just drive them 'through it'. You won't make things worse. Your worst scenario is the electrical-assist steering goes offline, and the car remains perfectly driveable at high speeds, and low-speed maneuvering and parking become athletic events.

NHW11s that have crashed out of the fleet (including 2002 and 2003 models) are offered, and one could consider buying and dropping in an entire new steering assembly. One would seriously consider the traction-battery status before making large investments.

I'd like to say that a few NHW11 have every chance to become million-mile vehicles, but traction-battery (first) and steering shudder (second) issues make that 'few' in the final count.

Not so many still love NHW11, and greasemonkey007 is greatly welcome to join this group, but we don't want it to damage your life overall. Make choices that make sense for you, and know that PriusChat is probably the best place to talk about these things.

 

You'll be working both inside and out of the car. It will have to be raised, and not by the front wheels, as you'll be taking those off, freeing the knuckles at the tie rods and the ball joints, and dropping the whole front suspension subframe from the body (the steering gear is mounted on top of it). You'll find some specifics in the service manual for how to deal with the rubber steering column boot to prevent damage. One thing it doesn't say enough about is how to separate the steering gear wire harness connectors (two of 'em), clipped to a two-piece bracket that bolts to the transmission. One of them you can just reach to unclip from above the engine. The other is also easy if you've got two wrists and three elbows, or a trained squid. You can order one from SPX/OTC if your ASPCA papers are current.

Please do refer to the service manual for a job of this depth.

After reassembling everything, you'll need to do the steering ECU rezeroing procedure, and get a front-end alignment.

You can do this either to install a new part ($2,200-ish), a used one that may well have the same problem you're fixing, or one from any of a few remanufacturing suppliers who might have taken it apart and cleaned it. You'll do the same labor whichever way. If you choose a used one, you might want to at least bench-test it carefully, or maybe even take it apart and clean it, before going through the effort of swapping it in.

-Chap

 

You could rig up a power switch for the PS controller and only turn it on when parking.

Bob Wilson

 

I had this exact same problem on my '03 several years ago. I was told it was a problem with the steering column. Cost to fix: $1800. I printed out a list of every complaint I could find on the internet, took it to the dealership, argued that this was a known safety hazard that really should have had a recall, and haggled them down to $650 (they paid for the part, I paid for labor). So it's possible to get it done relatively inexpensively, depending on how well you argue and how flexible the dealership is. I don't know how useful this info will be for you, but maybe worth a shot. This kind of repair is way out of my depth, so I had to give it a go because the problem just kept getting worse.

 

i had

Steering wheel chattering/shaking sometimes on 01

I had exactly that problem on my 89 000Km gen 1 Prius. Changed the 12V battery and that stopped for some days, and came back sometimes more ennoying. I charged the battery overnight, as my voltmeter was giving 12.5 V in the morning. the problem seemed to desappear for some other days, until I watched a video saying: That comes from the AIR FLOW in the carburator. Clean the butterfly and the chamber carefully as good as you can. I did that, and the issue never got back. It took me less than 20 mins. More than 2 months running and never got the problem. The car runs smoothly as perfect as in the first day I got it.

 

Interesting and entertaining that you found that to work for you. At the end of the day, though, the Gen 1 noisy-torque-sensor chatter is well studied and understood, and not related to the throttle body (probably what you meant when you wrote carburetor, of which there isn't one).

-Chap

 

I observed some correlation with cold weather. Somebody might clean an unrelated system at same time as season warms.

Not sure how Chap got a copy of my electrocardiogram.

 

Hmm ... have they implanted something to take care of you when stuff like at 08:48:03 happens?

-Chap

 

I just shaved my tin whiskers and was good to go.