Prius 2014 Rear Axle

Hi Chumchum! Welcome to the forums! Just to get the ball rolling, before the others check in, I can say this much: if your axle is bent due to a road hazard or accident it would probably be excluded from any warranty. However, if you bought the car and it was already that way, you may have some recourse, particularly if the dealer sold it as Certified. Maybe the dealer would like to try doing the 4-wheel alignment themselves. Centering the steering wheel is part of any successful wheel alignment procedure.

 

It's doubtful, but all they can do is say "no." Give it a try. I assume you bought it new in 2014 based on that expiration date. They will most likely claim that it was caused by a road hazard and offer to replace it for about $974,999.95.

Since you plan to keep it a long time, perhaps a trip to the salvage yard for a used but straight axel would be profitable.

 

You bought something at premium price and not know what it covers?

If you can prove that the axle bent is from manufacture defect and it's listed/covered verbiage for verbiage on warranty covered items, all will be paid for. You have to convince warranty companies and its optional for them to honor their terms, never recommend add-on car warranties on a new purchase car.

 

There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. Namely:
1. Did they actually give you any read-outs from their diagnosis?
2. How is the wear pattern on the tread?
3. How long has the steering wheel been off-center?
4. How is the drive ability? (handling)
These are just a few important things that need to be answered.
My suggestion would be, to have the toe-in and/ or the steering set to straighten the wheel first. It’s unlikely that the rear axle would have any effect on the crooked steering wheel. Although it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the rear axle being out of spec. could be responsible, it is highly unlikely. It would have to be excessively bent and that would lead to all kinds of drive quality issues.
So in closing, have the front end aligned, keep an eye on the tire wear in the back, and rotate you tires every 5000 miles.

 

Take a good look at the rear axle yourself. You can actually do pretty good without even raising the car. Still, removing the rear wheels and having the back end up on safety stands will give you a much better view.

IMHO, the best place for rear safety stands is at the red rectangles:



Rear axle is highlighted in yellow in the above. Look for odd kinks/cracks. The whole thing is pretty rust-prone, but look for unusually rusty junctions, might be a sign of partial failure or bending.

 

how would a bent rear axle affect steering wheel alignment?

 

Leave it to @bisco to ask the fundamental questions.

 

most places will tell you they can't align the rear axle, even toyota dealers.

it can be done with specialty shims by someone with the knowledge and ability though

 

We bent ours, they just replaced it.

 

what happened? and how did they diagnose? did your steering wheel go off center?

 

I was doing a U-turn on St. Johns in Port Moody. It's illegal, but the streets looked very clear, one car coming my way, but waaay down the street, so off I go.

I'm justing negotiating the center line (it had some snow build-up), and I could sense someone coming, out of the corner of my eye, and fast. I booted it but he managed to catch driver's side rear corner. Spun me some, stoved in the rear wheel.

They carted him off in an ambulance. I got a ticket.

A few months later we get this letter, from a lawyer assigned to us by ICBC (provincial insurer): the guy wants to sue us. I contacted the lawyer for more info, and she pointed out this guy had four similar lawsuits going, in the past year.

I googled the guy's name, he had various mentions for smoking pot in a car, that was about it.

Nothing ever came of the lawsuit.

Hopefully he's off the road now.

 

I quit doing that U-turn...

Ultimate Collision really pulled out all the stops, worked their magic, new rear axle, excellent body work. They're called Mountain Collision now, someone took over, still doing excellent work.

 

yeah, that's when i'll quit rolling through stop signs...