Gen 2 Steering Rattle

[JerryV]

My 09 GT has been running good, but it has a rattle that has been annoying me since I got it going. Most noticeable at low speed on rough surfaces.I took off the wheels one by one and looked at all the suspension and brake parts to see if it was one of them. Finally realized it is in the steering column.

Today I did a search for "steering rattle" and found that a lot of people have had the same issue. Some have replaced the intermediate shaft with no joy. Viewing a couple of youtube videos, it appears the problem is caused by a spider coupler in the electric power steering. There is a rubber cushioning part that deteriorates leaving play between metal parts. Some people have filled the area with grease to deaden the sound, but this doesn't cure the problem, just quiets it. Has anyone found a replacement for this part? I looked at Rockauto, but all I see is a whole replacement column for $364. With the same column being used in a bunch of Toyotas, I wonder if the part is this one?

https://parts.toyota.com/p/DAMPER---ELE ... 28040.html

Has anyone replaced something like that? Looks like a pretty big job to get that deep into it, but it might be worth it to cure that rattle.

Thanks
Jerry

[Caretaker]

Your research is spot on, although I thought it was the entire intermediate steering shaft. Either way, since there isn't a safety issue and despite there being so many Toyota products affected, NITSA has not issued a mandatory recall on the part. Mine has been doing it for at least 8 years. I don't believe I have ever seen a "fix" for the problem. One would think after so much time has passed that Toyota would have fixed the problem in any current steering column they are selling post assembly. I haven't talked to a Toyota manager about it for 5 years now. You may want to mosey in to a Toyota dealer and ask the service department head whether there is now such a part.

[jolt]

This may help:

STEERING_INTERMEDIATE_SHAFT_KNOCKING_NOISE_T-SB-0243-09.pdf

Technical Service Bulletin from Toyota

(369.91 KiB) Downloaded 262 times

Heed warnings about marking things and not letting things move. If anything moves, you will be making a trip to the front end alignment shop unless you have a scanner that can reset steering center position.

Also note that "A new intermediate shaft has been developed to address this condition." The new shaft uses the same part number as the old shaft per this TSB.

[JerryV]

It seems that several people have reported changing that intermediate shaft with no improvement. I think that may be a fix for a different problem. If you check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73elBQ8UXA

It shows the problem with the coupling in the electric power steering. The guy is long winded, but at about the 18:30 minute time he shows the coupling that probably is making the rattle I am talking about.

Jerry

[Capt.Vibe]

It seems that several people have reported changing that intermediate shaft with no improvement. I think that may be a fix for a different problem. If you check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73elBQ8UXA

It shows the problem with the coupling in the electric power steering. The guy is long winded, but at about the 18:30 minute time he shows the coupling that probably is making the rattle I am talking about.

Jerry

I know I'll probably get no response here but did this fix end up working? My steering rattle has been getting slightly worse and after living with it for 10 years it finally is starting to annoy; seems to get worse in winter. Windows closed also doesn't help.

[zbyers]

It seems that several people have reported changing that intermediate shaft with no improvement. I think that may be a fix for a different problem. If you check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I73elBQ8UXA

It shows the problem with the coupling in the electric power steering. The guy is long winded, but at about the 18:30 minute time he shows the coupling that probably is making the rattle I am talking about.

Jerry

I know I'll probably get no response here but did this fix end up working? My steering rattle has been getting slightly worse and after living with it for 10 years it finally is starting to annoy; seems to get worse in winter. Windows closed also doesn't help.

The intermediate shaft on second gen highlanders is known to go bad also...I can't remember what the easy solution is off the top of my head, but you could probably search using a more common vehicle with same issue for a quick solution.