Steering Problems of Toyota RAV4 - part 1

Electric power steering low indicator displayed while driving. It re-appeared several times over the past days. Called dealer and awaiting their response.

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The first time I was stopped at a red light and the car started acting like it was missing and then it shut off this was during rain the message on the dash said engine stopped steering power low. The next time this happened I was parking it a parking lot and the engine did the same it rpm started going up and down like it was missing then it shut off and showed the message engine stopped steering power low this was also during rain after I had been driving in the rain. After about 20 minutes both times the car would start and drive as normal. I have looked online and multiple people have had the same issue.

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I stopped for gas; my car would not start. The power steering fluid light came on. I went inside to purchase some but when I returned to the car, there was no place to pour it. After a few minutes the car started. About a month later, my husband stopped for gas and the car killed right after he left the gas station, about 10 minutes later, it started. Took it to a mechanic, they couldn't find anything wrong with it because the check engine light wasn't on and the car wasn't giving any problem codes. About two weeks ago, I stopped for gas, the car wouldn't start. Finally got it started, and the check engine light came on. However, it's still not reading any codes.

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The contact owns a 2019 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the steering wheel seized, and the contact had to use force to maneuver the steering wheel. A yellow light was illuminated, followed by a red light. The message "power steering malfunction" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the power steering unit sensor had failed. The vehicle was not repaired due to the cost. The contact retrieved dtcs: c05d604 (electronic power steering (eps) system internal failure); c151287 (malfunction in the electric power steering (eps) system torque sensor); and c15d11c (electric parking brake failure). The vehicle was not repaired due to the cost. The contact stated that the failure persisted. The contact related the failure to NHTSA campaign number: 20v373000 (steering); however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 45,500.

For the last 2 months, a code comes up it says loss of electric power steering assist. It came up 15 times in two months. What happens is a steering wheel ceases up for a second or two and then the code goes away. This is something that could happen anytime especially if I have my grandchildren with me and ex steering wheel could freeze up and I wouldn’t be able to steer around an accident at an intersection or something. This is very hazardous to me and my family. There was a recall on some of the 2020 Toyota Rav4’s in the past. I’m telling you I’m not a liar. I do get this coming up this way too many times.

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Year: 2014 make: Toyota model: Rav4 approx. Mileage: 60k 2. Incident details date of most recent incident: 9/18/2025 problem: vehicle stalls and loses power steering while turning. Engine shuts off suddenly, causing complete loss of steering control. Consequence: on 9/18/25, my son lost control of the Rav4, hit a curb, and went through bushes before stopping. Previous stalls also occurred while turning, with loss of steering assist. This is a severe safety hazard. Frequency: has occurred multiple times, even after dealership inspection and repairs. 3. Dealer/repair info dealer name: sarasota Toyota address: 7435 s tamiami trail, sarasota, FL 34231 repair attempts: dealer inspected in August 2025, charged nearly $900, but problem persists. Car is now back in the shop (not Toyota) for a second opinion at an additional cost of over $200. 4. Description my 2014 Toyota Rav4 repeatedly stalls and loses engine power and power steering without warning, especially while turning. On September 18, 2025, my son lost control of the vehicle, hit a curb, and went through bushes before managing to stop. This is extremely dangerous and could have resulted in a serious accident. Sarasota Toyota has inspected the vehicle and charged nearly $900 for repairs, but the defect was not fixed. The vehicle continues to stall and is unsafe to drive. I am pursuing a second opinion at additional expense. This issue places my family and others on the road in danger. I am filing this complaint so that Toyota and regulators address this defect.

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Electric power steering problem, steering wheel is very stiff and wont return to center ,car is very difficult to drive, I have read that NHTSA issued some safety recalls on 2011 Toyota Rav4 related to this mfg. Defect in the circut board -ecu -electronic control unit in the electric power steering , I purchased this used car on 9/17/2025 . I am taking it to Toyota dealer 10/9/2025.

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While getting gas the car was running and I got a warning that said engine stopped power steering low. I started the car and everything was fine and was able to drive with no issues and haven't seen the warning. I know sometimes dealerships have reminders for maintenance and not sure if this was just a glitch. After reviewing forums this seems like a known issue on Toyota but the vehicle hasn't been recalled some users have said car was fine while others say battery or alternator. This should be looked into. Thank you.

Brakes failed to respond wheels locked and steering shut down.

I cant use my cruise control its not going straight and everytime im turning I can hear a grinding noise its coming from power steering.

I was driving the car with no issues on July 13th- made two 30-minute trips with no issues the same day. During a 15-minute drive, the car was fine until I was at an intersection 12 minutes into the drive (frederick rd and centennial ln in ellicott city, MD). I was stopped at the intersection for maybe a minute, and when the traffic light turned green, I released my brake and went to accelerate when I got the following display message: "engine stopped steering power low. " the engine turned off, and I couldn't get the car to budge in drive or reverse. When I tried pressing on the gas pedal, it wouldn't budge and felt very stiff. I'm thankful this happened at a smaller intersection on a Sunday evening because my car wouldn't start back up and was stuck in the dead center of this intersection. Cars going east and south all had to drive around me. This put my safety at risk because I had to hop out of my car and redirect people around it until a kind passerby pulled over to help push my car to the right-side turning lane. I was standing in the middle of an intersection on a road with a 35-40 mph speed limit. After pushing the car to the curb and calling a few towing places (maybe 20 minutes later), I tried starting the car again, and it started with no issues whatsoever. I drove it the rest of the way back (for 3 minutes) with no problems, and I made another three 20-25 minute drives on it today. Nothing sounds wrong with the car; it's running with no issues. I would take my car to the dealership for a diagnostic, but I can't afford to right now. I will put my battery on a tender and use a multimeter to check the voltage within the next few days. Regular maintenance has been kept, and the car has never had this happen prior. I've never received the "engine stopped steering power low" message prior to this incident. The car is available for inspection upon request.

The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that the power steering assist intermittently failed to operate as needed, with the maintenance warning light displayed on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and a dealer however, there were no fault codes retrieved. The contact stated that while making a left turn onto a side road, the steering wheel seized, and excessive force was needed to steer the vehicle. The vehicle was taken back to the independent mechanic, where the contact was informed that the vehicle would reset itself. The failure intermittently persisted, and the vehicle was taken back to the dealer where the vehicle was diagnosed with a defective steering column. Upon investigation, the contact linked the failure to NHTSA campaign number: 15v144000 (steering); however, the vehicle was not included in the recall. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and the contact was provided a case number. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 118,000.

My car steering wheel is not responding correctly when I drive". Last week a warning light of faulty steering angle sensor keeps showing on and off. I am afraid that I may crash. I called Toyota to let them know and after verifying my VIN # they want to charge me $185. 00 because according to them my car is not on their recall all the information can also be found on the website.

Started normally, but had a message on the screen saying “check fuel cap. ” I needed gas anyways, drove about 3 minutes to the gas station, turned engine off, put gas. Turned engine back on and within 3 seconds it shut off. The screen displayed “engine stopped- power steering low. ” I tried a handful of times to start, it did not. After 20 minutes and some rest, it started. With no more messages. Battery and alternator were tested, both were good.

For several months the 2006 Rav4 with only 118k miles had been experiencing intermittent failure of power steering while driving at speeds between 5-20mph. These failures resulted in the steering wheel to become extremely difficult if not impossible to turn while the car is driving. In each incident, this resulted in stopping the car and putting on emergency lights until we can safely turn off the car and hopefully the issue goes away several minutes later. This issue has proven to be very dangerous when in traffic with no place to pull over and with the steering tightening up, it is not even possible to pull over in most cases. Four different mechanical shops tried to replicate the issue and none were able to determine the root cause nor replicate it consistently. This issue has been happening more frequently now and the car cannot be taken out safely. As elderly drivers, this is not safe by any means and Toyota should consider this a critical safety recall and cover towing costs to move this. There are no signs of instrument lights or any leaks coming from the car. This seems to be entirely a malfunction of steering components. With regard to incidents resulting from this, my mother is the primary driver, she is 71 years old and injured her wrist trying to move the steering wheel to a safe location. Her wrist is still in pain several days later.

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The electric power steering has malfunctioned. The malfunction of the eps may cause the car to jerk or swerve. The dealership has said they have seen countless problems with the eps. There is a recall on the eps in the 2014 Rav4, however this vehicle did not fall under the previous recall. No warning lamps or messages appear for this particular issue with the vehicle. The vehicle is available for inspection. The dealership has quoted $3014. 00 for the repair. Steering column assembly replacement and eps motor replacement.

After driving for approximately 30-minutes in the rain I pulled over and the automatic engine shutoff feature activated while I was waiting to pick somebody up. When attempting to restart the car, the engine would not turn over and I got a low power steering warning message on my dash. The problem persisted for approximately 15-20 minutes. Eventually after about 15 attempts to restart the engine, the car started back up and drove fine the rest of the way home. The dealership was unable to find anything wrong with my car, but I have heard of this happening to many other Rav4s and it causes me concerning, especially when I need to drive my car in the rain.

Engine shuts off with exposure to rain.

While driving on or around 6/5/25, an active recall on my vehicle caused damage to my battery connections causing my vehicle to completely shut off while driving on an highway exit ramp. I almost lost complete control of the vehicle. Thankfully, the vehicle turned back on and I was able to get the vehicle to safety. I had to get the car towed and repaired. The repair was directly related to the damage from an active recall issue being open without remedy for over 3 years on my vehicle. When I asked Toyota for reimbursement of under $200 they refused. This is a safety issue beyond the recall and I am concerned this is going to happen to someone else and there are going to be deaths. Toyota needs to stand by their recall too and may the financial aspect correct with me. Other members of the public need to be aware of the issues beyond their recall that can affect their cars and that Toyota is requiring them to be responsible for the damage that was caused while waiting on a remedy to the recall.

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Driving down the highway in the pouring rain. Pulled over because the engine felt like it was about to stall. Whole engine cut off and check engine light came on with “engine stopped - power steering low”. Would act like it wanted to start again but shut back off every time. After about 30 minutes it started back up without any check engine lights or messages. This is the 3rd time its happened. Always in the rain.

I was sitting in my driveway 5 minutes after getting home from work and the car engine turned over and message on the screen said “engine stopped, power steering low”. I tried turning it back on and it turned over again with the same messsge.

When idling with intermittent wipers on, the vehicle began smoking under the hood, engine light came on dash as well as “steering power low” warning, then engine shut off. The vehicle was unable to be started again after waiting a few minutes. The gear shift could not move from parked. The vehicle was purchased new and had only 20,000 miles on it. I ended up having it towed to a Toyota dealership but by that time the battery was drained from leaving the hazards on too long. They could not identify any other problems and sent me on my way with a working vehicle. After talking to a manager at another Toyota dealership, they identified that this is an occasional problem with this vehicle. The manager was able to contact Toyota who suggested they replace the air intake tube and bezel. Hopefully after these new parts are replaced I will not experience a random shutdown again. It’s such a specific set of conditions to cause the problem but a quick search online showed that other people have encountered similar situations with the wipers on intermittent while idling. Someone mentioned pressing the switch to turn off the automatic engine shut off as a temporary fix. I was blocking traffic and police had to direct traffic around me while I waited for the tow. Thankfully the traffic was not moving fast.

Was driving in heavy rain after about a 35 mile commute and put the car in park. After about 5 minutes of sitting in park the car turned completely off by itself for a couple of seconds and restarted. Warning message “engine stopped steering power low” popped up on dash and was visible smoke coming from under the hood with a slight burning smell. This is a first incident for the car as it has been driven for about 2 years with a little over 35,100 miles on it.

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The contact owns a 2007 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated while driving 40 mph, the steering wheel seized. The contact was able to regain control of the vehicle. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 222,822.

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I was driving home in exceptionally heavy rain. Before getting home, I decided to stop at a coffee drive thru. It was still raining pretty heavily as I drove up to the pick up window. I had my foot on the brake as I waited for my order. A few minutes went by when suddenly the car shook a bit and completely shut off. A warning sign came up on the dash screen that read “engine stopped, steering power low” and instructed to put the car in park. That warning message would come up every time I tried to put the gearshift back in drive. I kept trying to restart the car many times, the engine cracked but no start. At one point I even tried putting the car in neutral to attempt to push it out of drive thru lane but the car and steering wheel were locked in place. There was no way to move either. It’s still raining at this point but it has significantly lightened up. About 15 - 20 minutes later, the car started up like normal and I was able to put the gearshift in drive. The car is less than a year old and nothing like this has ever happened before. There were absolutely no warning signs prior to this happening, everything on the dashboard and the mobile app associated with the car showed the car was in “good health. ” I am so incredibly lucky this happened at a drive thru and not in the middle of a highway or busy intersection. You are left completely helpless since the engine completely shuts off and the steering wheel locks. If this happened on a highway, it would immediately create a multi vehicle accident or potentially worse. This is a huge safety risk that needs to be addressed immediately. I plan to take the vehicle into the dealership for inspection because I do not feel 100% safe anymore.

I was sitting with the car in park. The car was running. My vehicle started shaking and said “engine stopped, steering power low”.

I was driving down [xxx] the car was moving along fine then when I pushed the gas it would jerk back and shake. I pulled off the highway and was able to coast into a gas station, but the engine stopped working as I was driving while cars were coming behind me. I could have been stopped in the middle of traffic with no way to get out. The power steering light came on as well as a light that said the engine was cut off. We just bought the car used with 22k miles on it and put an additional 3k miles on. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Unknown: it happened during a heavy storm on my 40 miles to work and all the symbols lights suddenly lit up on the dashboard. The car died and the steering wheel got heavy when I tried to pull to the emergency lane. Luckily I was able to pull over, but it almost caused an accident as I was in the middle lane. I tried to start up the car again, but it would crank up, but died instantly and the dash would show "ignition on" on the top left and "engine stopped: power steering low". I called the dealership and talked to the service department and the service advisor think it was the battery, but he told me to try starting it after 5-10 minutes, if not, to call the tow company and tow the car to dealership for further inspection. I let it sit for 10 minutes and was able to start it back up and drove it straight to the nearest Toyota dealership. While driving to the dealership, the car kept choking/stalling when pressing on the gas after braking. They examined with their scanners and the battery was in good condition and my car has gas (about 3/4 tank full) and they said the scans reported no issues. This is a concerning issue as I could had lost my life or possibly cause major accident and involve other people life.

It’s pouring rain and my engine stopped and a message popped up saying “engine stopped power steering low”.

It’s been a year since I have owned my 2021toyota rav and it has randomly been shutting off with the notice: power steering voltage abnormality. I have taken the vehicle to get checked but nothing is coming up indicating what the issue is. The battery is fine, the alternator is fine, and there doesn’t seem to be any electrical issues with the power steering. I have seen that there has been certain recalls on the power steering voltage notice on the Toyota ravs and owners complaining about a random shut off on their vehicles. I am one of those owners and would like to know why my vehicle hasn’t been issued a recall. It is a safety hazard and concern. My vehicle has been shutting off in the middle of a busy highway. Please look into this issue.

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I was sitting in a drive trough getting breakfast, I go to pull off and my car cuts off. Couldn’t get it to restart. Had to push it out of the way. Power steering low. Granted this cat is just 2 years old. It’s done this before last year after having it one full year same thing. Luckily after letting it sit for 20-30 minutes it started and I got it to Toyota. Low power steering shouldn’t cut an engine off. If anything just be hard to drive. These new cars need to be tweaked. If Toyota can’t fix this they will not get any more business from me.

My engine shut off (would not turn back on!) and displayed message: “engine stopped. Steering power low”. I brought it to the dealership the next morning. I was told that the power steering was electric, they could not duplicate the message, and to bring it back if it does it again. I’m concerned because what happens if it occurs again while I’m driving on the interstate?.

I went to start my car , the engine turned off stating power steering low engine off . Then tried again and got more errors likes brake engaged power off also the lane monitor was not working.

While at the end of a car wash with the car in neutral, the car accelerated by itself. It reached 60 mph for over a half mile, and was unresponsive to steering and brakes. The left front wheel was severely damaged. Fortunately, there were no accidents.

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After 4 to 5 years vehicle has begun to sporadically upon the first 10 minutes of driving to show a low power steering error message. The error message turns on and turns off within one second many people have been reporting the same issue with even their newer model Rav4’s. This is not acceptable.