Everything I have found on the Internet, other than some hoaxes, report the failure rate for the Wii as the same as the PS3, which is less than 3% or 1% depending on the source. Why 2% is never mentioned is a mystery. Retailers often claim that they have not seen any returned Wiis. Repair services list only a handful of errors, most are more software/firmware related than hardware failure.
The DVD drive seems to have the same issues as any other DVD drive, such as dirty lens and they show up most often on SSBB which is a dual layer disk. Most of these reports are from 2007. In 2008 apparently both the Wii and the PS3 had such a low failure rate that there are no figures at all.
However, Nintendo has had to ramp up production greatly in an attempt to meet demand. Such expansion is often associated with more quality control issues and at least short term increases in failure rate. Does anybody have any, non anecdotal, reports of increases in failure rates from reliable sources?
