Owners of the 04-06 Prius - there's a recall out:

There's a possibility that, under certain conditions, the steering assembly could fail - 170,000 vehicles.

For info, call 800-331-4331.

 

If yours is one of the potentially affected vehicles, you already got a TSB letter. This also affects some other Toyota products, they use a common assembly.

 

This is SSC 60C. It is not technically a recall, but a special service campaign. It has to do with a steering yoke assembly which does not meet Toyota's standards of performance after real world operating conditions were applied. The assembly affected by the SSC is common to all Toyota products world wide which have electric power steering.

If your vehicle is affected you will receive a letter from Toyota. However if you have not received a letter and are at the dealer for normal maintenance you can ask them to put your VIN through their computer and see if there are any TSBs or SSCs that need to be addressed.

I'm not certain, but I do not believe there are any failures of this part in the US.

Oh, and the conditions which would case this assembly to fail would be brought on by blatent abuse and poor handling of the vehicle. If you drive normally and do not abuse your vehicle or take it to the limits of its performance it is highly unlikley that this part would ever show even the slightest indication of failure.