[olivetti]

I didn't have my car back a week after they fixed my panoramic roof rattle before I encountered the steering lock up issue.

My story is a little different because it was a gradual decay of the steering wheel instead of a sudden lock up. Saturday morning I was driving in a straight line at about 30 mph when I noticed the steering wheel slightly tugging left and right on its own. This started to happen not 30 seconds after I started the car. Since I am an avid reader of the forum I knew exactly what was happening (or about to happen). I pulled into a parking lot, parked, turned off the car and waited about a minute. When I started it again, the steering was compeltely shot and I had to handle the wheel like a huge steel valve to get the car to turn. About 20 seconds lated POWER STEERING appeared on the DIC with a chime, and the service icon (the wrench) appeared in my dash. I was able to park again (I was in the lot of the place I was heading to anyway) and called to make a service appointment right away.

I returned to the car about 90 minutes later and was able to drive home with no problems. I was in the car two more times that day with no problems as well. At midnight, however, when I was picking my wife up from work, I experienced the same gradual tugging on the steering wheel and it eventually locked up again right when I was pulling up to our house.

Sunday and this morning I was able to drive with no issues. When I was on my way to the dealership, though, I did notice a slight whirring/humming coming from the steering column. It was only audible while idling (no radio), and the sound only occured when I moved the wheel from its center rest position.

Anyway, my car is at the dealer now. I am slightly optimistic because they called me at work to get more information and told me they were talking with their technical people in Michigan about it. That's a tiny morsel I've yet to see from some of the other stories about the issue.

I've already filed a complaint with the NTHSA; I'm waiting to see what transpires before I contact anyone at the BBB or GM. I do empathsize with everyone who's gone through this -- I can only imagine what would have happened with my steering had locked travelling on the Interstate. I take I-76 into Philadelphia for work each day and if you know that stretch of highway, you'll understand the danger!

For the records I have an '05 G6 V6. It had 16750 miles on it when the problem occured originally. It was about 70F when it happened. It was the first generally mild day of the year. The last digits of the VIN are 54148162.

I'll update everyone later!

 

[Subtle_Cynicism]

This greatly bothers me.

First year problems are expected.

First year death traps are not welcome, and I am highly disappointed in GM for, at this point, not even making it known that this is a problem.

I'm happy you're getting results, keep us up to date; nice to hear a success story from time -to - time

 

[olivetti]

forgot to update! according to the service tech, the power source/motor/whatever in my steering column was outputing a very low amount of power; about half as much as needed. they replaced that power source. i've had the car back for about two weeks. no problems since then. in fact, the steering wheel feels a little more taut -- you know, like in a regular car!

more updates if something happens....

 

[olivetti]

it happened again! when i first started the car yesterday, i put it in reverse to back out of a parking spot; when i put the car into drive, the steering wheel flew all the way to the left on its own. the wheel locked up again and the "power steering" message appeared on the DIC.

its back in the shop. more later!

 

[Bob G]

I do wish that more people who have experienced the problem would leave their last 8 digits of the VIN as Olivetti did, it could lead to some discovery as to what caused the problem. His car was built before mine. Just wondering about the others. I have had no problem (at least not yet) 54157377.

 

[G6Action]

you might want to verify the production date rather than assuming that since your VIN is 'higher' that your car was built after his. when searching for my Jeep, in the case of Mopar, i found that a VIN of 6P123456, for instance, wasn't necessarily built before VIN 6P234567.

at Daimler-Chrysler, the VIN's are more than likely computer generated and the last six digits are not an indication of sequence.

just a thought...........but maybe GM is different. well, we all KNOW they're 'different'. as an example, why don't they own up to the fact they have a major safety issue here but they keep their heads burried in the sand, telling G6 owners; "this is the first we've heard of a problem like this"???

P.S. update on my Jeep.....i still LOVE IT and guess what, NO PROBLEM WITH THE STEERING!!! i DO miss the keyless entry though, but thats about it!

 

[S8ER99]

I miss remote start.. . until I get in my car and start it..then I forgot all about it.