[PureSpeed1]

My 04 Prius is only 2 months old and I noticed that the steering wheel(both 9:00 and 3:00 of the steering wheel) doesnt stay perfectly straight. When I let go of the steering wheel while driving straight, the car rends to go of course very little to the left..

Considering my car is new, I would expect a very straight alignment with the front end and steering wheel.. Do you guys have the same problem with your new 04 Prius? Let me know.. Thanks in advance!

 

[Brian]

Mine is the same!!!

 

[V8Cobrakid]

I haven't noticed anything like this. I"ll have to check it out tomorrow and report back. There has been several times where i have minimal grip on the wheel and it doesn't seem to drift at all. A very point and go car.

 

[oldfox]

No such drift here. Have takaen hands off wheel and seems to be one of the best tracking vehicles I have owned.

Salsa Red since 12/15/03

 

[moocatdog]

No such drift here. Have takaen hands off wheel and seems to be one of the best tracking vehicles I have owned.

This is true of my Prius as well; tracking is straight and true.
Drive happy,
Moo

 

[mdacmeis]

As delivered, my wheel is off about 15 degrees to the right. I do not have any drift issues, however. It will be going in for an alignment soon.

 

[richard schumacher]

Probably obvious, but if you drift first check the air in your tires.

 

[PureSpeed1]

As delivered, my wheel is off about 15 degrees to the right. I do not have any drift issues, however. It will be going in for an alignment soon.

I take it youre experiencing the same problem and i take it it is not normal.. How many miles do you have by the way??

 

[PureSpeed1]

Probably obvious, but if you drift first check the air in your tires.

There ar no problems with the air pressure of tires..

 

[mdacmeis]

I now have 2000 miles on the Prius. The steering wheel was off when the vehicle was delivered, which was by courier, because the dealer was 550 miles away. There were documented reports of a significant number of Pruis being delivered with this problem. I actually expected it. It was alleged it was caused by alignment shift during the bouncing on the boat during the trip across the ocean. I would suggest, however, that this is simply the way they were being built. If the person at the end of the line who is responsible for setting the alignment does not get the wheel straight first, the wheel will be where ever it was when the alignment was set. The movement on the boat should not affect the alignment.

Now I have to select the Toyota dealer I want to fix this under warranty. This is not simple, as the 3 dealers within 75 miles of me are allocated a wopping 16 Prius total per year due to their low sales volumes. As such, they have little or no experience with the Prius, which is not comforting.

 

[FIXIT]

Be sure to have the alignment checked with 12months 12k or else you may have to foot the bill. Such adjustments are available under warranty for this period.

If you search the archives, you will see that this drifting/mis-alignment/inability to align steering wheel was an issue that was gravely stated as affecting 2001-2003 vehicles. The tires were initially blamed. The problem seemed linked to premature rack failure (unusual stress?) - failures which appear to resurface with replaced racks as well.

This fourm is a database, search it. Especially prior to the 2004 model messages onslaught and be become knowledgable when dealing with the dealers and toyota. With out such knowledge it may be difficult to get them to FIXIT.