Other steering problem on the 2001 Toyota Prius
1 crash 1 of the 24 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Toyota Prius report other steering problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 116,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39,600 miles | 60,000 miles | 112,000 miles | 143,000 miles | 156,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 40; the 2001 has 24. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Dt: the contact stated that 2001 toyota prius was having trouble with the steering wheel. When the wheel was in certain position it shuttered violently. The problem was intermittent. This happened just a few times since 2001, and in the last week, it was happening daily. The contact had not taken the car to the repair shop prior to this week. The contact was taken vehicle to dealer for a check up on the steering. There has been no success in contacting toyota as of now. She will contact toyota soon. The contact stated that the vehicle was very unsafe to drive. There has been no near misses, but this condition was very scary.*ak updated 12/27/05. *jb
A 2001 toyota pruis I own has developed an intermittent but severe steering wheel shake over the last 4 months. It is consistent with a warranty enhancement notice we received from toyota in 2004 (NHTSA item number 10007669). To date the problem has only occurred at very low speeds, mostly when backing out of a parking spot or the driveway. The shaking / rattle is extremely severe, shaking the steering wheel so hard it is impossible to hold on to it. It lasts from less then one to 4 or 5 seconds. If it was ever to occur at any real speed, loss of control is a certainty. Due to the intermittent nature, I have not been able to get my dealer to "diagnose" the problem, when I took it in with this complaint. Since then, I have discussed the issue with fremont toyota's customer service representative, the dealers service manager, e-mailed toyota's national headquarters (they recorded it as file number 200706250915); and called toyota's customer experience center without a satisfactory result. I am told the service center needs to experience the problem before toyota would authorize a repair. Due to the intermittent nature, I either have…
Tl*the contact owns a 2001 toyota prius. While driving at any speed, the steering wheel vibrates. The failure worsens when making left and right turns. The failure has occurred ever since the vehicle was purchased. The vehicle has not been taken to a dealer. The current mileage was 69,110 and failure mileage was 69,012.
Also reported on the 2001 Toyota Prius
Other wheel or tire problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other steering problem happen on the 2001 Toyota Prius?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2001 Toyota Prius?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed