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!
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!