Intermediate Steering Shaft Separation

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a January 2013 defect petition requesting that it open an investigation on Model Year (MY) 2004-2009 Toyota Prius vehicles to address a possible manufacturing safety defect related to the steering column intermediate shaft. During the defect petition evaluation, ODI: 1. Reviewed the petition and its enclosures; 2. Reviewed the subject steering system layout; 3. Examined the Petition Vehicle’s history, including its repair history; 4. Reviewed and followed-up potentially related consumer complaints; 5. Assessed Safety Recalls 06V-188 and 12V-537; and, 6. Requested and examined complaint, claim, field report, service history, and warranty information from Toyota. ODI's review revealed that the petition vehicle had been recalled (Recall 06V188) to remedy a defect in the system identified in the petition with the remedy taking place prior to the failure that prompted the petition. Circumstances point to incorrect reassembly of the petitioner's vehicle by those who performed the recall remedy. ODI examined the issues raised by this petition to identify any related safety defect trend in the general subject vehicle population. That review identified a low rate of related consumer complaints (twenty-five over a eight year period from a population of over 600,000 vehicles) and no pattern that would identify either a safety defect not already covered by the two existing steering safety recalls by Toyota or a systematic problem with either recall remedy. Based on this evaluation, ODI does not believe that additional investigation will lead to a finding that a defect related to motor vehicle safety exists in the subject vehicles. Therefore, in view of the need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA’s limited resources to best accomplish the agency's safety mission, the petition is denied. The denial of this petition does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist. The agency reserves the right to t