Now that my wife's '07 has passed 125k mi, it looks like I'll be spending more quality time with the fine folks of PC. I was maneuvering it in the driveway this morning and noticed a subtle click or hitch in the steering as it passes through roughly zero angle. It seems to be a bit worse turning to the left than to the right. There is no noticeable impact on steering function or effort, just a subtle feeling in my fingers. (No actual noise, either.) I asked my wife how long that had been going on and her response was "what click?" Awesome. Sounds like there was a TSB for something similar up to early MY2006 cars, but this is a late 2007. I checked for play at the wheels when I swapped out the snow tires, and everything seemed good. (For that matter, it passed NY state safety inspection and the Firestone "what can we sell you?" check less than two weeks ago.) And I read one post about a "slip ring" that can get loose. Any suggestions on how to diagnose?
Pull the cover off the intermediate shaft connection point and see if the universal joint is binding. (Ignore the red circles in the picture, that is from a thread about adding drivers-ed equipment) Educate the wife that, if steering control is lost, stop immediately, and use the seatbelt to pin the steering wheel in place, lest you break the spiral cable aka clockspring.
on a slightly related note we had to replace a steering rack on our Kentucky built 92 camry (but not our japan built 92 camry), we were obviously upset with the cost, they gave us advice about never ever ever turning the steering wheel when a car is completely stopped or barely moving as this puts tremendous stresses on the steering components (you should be able to easily feel it in the steering wheel) try to always be going at least 4mph when turning the steering wheel in drive and 2mph when turning the steering wheel in reverse, our family has done this ever since on about 10 vehicles and never had to replace a steering rack since then so I think the advice is sound.
I had to replace the intermediate steering shaft in my 2004 Prius. The dealer charged $900. Yes, it had the related TSB work done much earlier in it's life. JeffD
Thanks for the replies. I'll have a look under the dash next chance I get. Oh, this conversation is going to go well. "If what happens?"
