| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 005071357 | Incident Date: Sep, 30 2005 |
| Consumer's City: PITTSBURGH | Consumer's State: PA |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO | Manufacturers Name: Toyota Motor Corporation |
| Model Name: PRIUS | Model Year: 2002 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No | Component's Description: Steering:electric power assist system |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 0 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: JT2BK18U120 | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: Jul, 13 2006 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: No | Purchase Date: Jan, 07 2002 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: Yes |
| Number of Cylinders: 4 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: A year ago, i had my 2002 toyota prius shipped to italy while i was on sabbatical. starting in october (2005), i started reporting to the local toyota dealer that the steering was stiff when returning the wheel straight ahead on sharp turns or when moving out of tight places where i had parked. i returned to the us for the spring semester, but returned in june, and found the same intermittent problem. my first thought was that there had been some damage to the car during shipping. this past sunday (july 9, 2006), however, i had a catastrophic incident that might have sent my wife and me off the small country road we were traveling on about a half mile from our home here south of florence in the chianti region. i had been on a steady downhill stretch which then reversed to in an s-curve on an incline. i turned normally through the first half of the s-curve when suddenly the steering wheel froze solid in a straight forward position and i had to jam on the brakes to stop forward motion of the car or go off the side of the road into a ravine. i was probably traveling under 15-20 mph, because the curves were so sharp and i was traveling uphill. to get off the road, i stopped and started the prius a couple of times to see if this were an electrical-computer fault as the steering system in this car had been replaced at 26,000 miles (more about this later). on about the third try, i was able with tremendous force to move the wheel off center and normal steering was restored. because there was no adequate shoulder on the road, i returned the car home, experiencing the same steering wheel lock-up more than once, jamming on the brakes to bring the car to a halt, and then wrestling with the steering wheel to the right and the left with the same immense force until it broke free. this was nothing like the previous stiffness i had experienced bringing the wheel back to center from a far left or far right position. (to be continued). *jb |
