Toyota Prius recall declared as a result of power steering problems

A Toyota Prius recall has been declared, involving the 1997 to 2003 Prius model years. Nuts in the power steering system can come loose and will trigger the vehicle’s steering to become unstable.

First time Prius has ever had an issue a recall had to take care of

MSNBC reports that Toyota Motor Business issued a recall for the Toyota Prius Hybrid due to some issues with the power steering system. In the past couple of years, Toyota has dealt with a ton of different recalls. All Prius automobiles made from 1997 to 2003 is being recalled. There are 48,000 cars affected from 1997 to 2003 in Japan. Since Toyota didn’t start selling the Prius in foreign markets until 2001, the worldwide impact is only vehicles from 2001 to 2003. There are 58,000 Prius cars affected from those years outside of Japan. About 800 of those automobiles are in Germany, 52,000 in the United States and 1,800 in the UK. There will be a total of about 106,000 cars recalled. That’s lots of cars that need fixing.

Recall means free fixes

According to AutoWeek, there are low-quality nuts in the power steering structure. This has caused the Prius recall. The steering and left turns can be very hard to do if the nuts get unfastened with wear that secure the pinion shaft to the steering gear box. This loosening occurs whenever the wheel is turned many times to the full lock position, states MotorTrend. This is likely to occur over the lifetime of an auto though. Toyota will fix the vehicles for free by simply putting in better nuts that don’t loosen, which will take about four hours. USA Today states that there was one minor accident that has happened due to this. In August 2007 in Japan, the first complaint was made. There were 28 more grievances in Japan and one in the United States This brought on the issue to be dealt with.

Production at Toyota to return to normal

Toyota has declared that it expects to be returning to full production capacity soon. Automakers in Japan, including Toyota, were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year. This brought on the corporations to stop production for a while. After the March 11 catastrophe, Toyota is back to recuperate faster. Almost right away, Toyota’s Japan operations are expected to go back to 90 percent capacity. Global operations in Thailand, China and Europe are expected to be at 100 percent capacity this month. The recall is something Toyota is getting done. The company wants it finished as soon as it can. Over 14 million cars have been recalled in the past two years by Toyota which has the automaker excited to get back to normal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su5V4I2kwQI

Information from

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/43235940/ns/business-autos/

Auto Week

autoweek.com/article/20110601/CARNEWS/110609999

MotorTrend

wot.motortrend.com/toyota-recalls-2001-2003-prius-steering-defect-82679.html

USA Today

content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/06/toyota-recalls-52000-prius-models-in-us-after-report-of-single-accident-/1?loc=interstitialskip