Steering issue...

[Kirtsky]

Had my first issue with the '06 yesterday. I was in heavy traffic in Florida, all stop and go stuff and had been for about 30 minutes. I started to notice that when I was breaking, I could feel a pull to one direction, then I would feel it to the other direction the next time. I thought that strange, but then, while changing lanes, i thought I heard a siren. Then I realized it was my steering. The steering felt numb abd I could hear the sound each time I tried moving it. I pulled over and could not duplicate it in a parking lot. Got back on the road and ten minutes later, made a turn and heard a long squeal from the steering.
Now I'm afraid to drive this thing back to georgia.

Any ideas? Thanks, Kirt

[Kirtsky]

oh, yeah, something is up.

Car feels numb, like there is no spring in the wheel. If I have the wheel pointed right, and brake, it jerks to the right. If pointed left, and brake, it jerks to the left. It feels like it is a direct connection now, all mechanical feeling, like there is no damping to it at all. When I hit any variation in the road, it grabs the new surface and yanks the wheel.

Taking it in for service. This is just not my car...

[Synth]

Originally Posted by Kirtsky

oh, yeah, something is up.

Car feels numb, like there is no spring in the wheel. If I have the wheel pointed right, and brake, it jerks to the right. If pointed left, and brake, it jerks to the left. It feels like it is a direct connection now, all mechanical feeling, like there is no damping to it at all. When I hit any variation in the road, it grabs the new surface and yanks the wheel.

Taking it in for service. This is just not my car...

I remember FastJ telling me about a similar problem with an '06 he had gotten. However since he was still within his 30 day swap period he took advantage of that and swapped it for another '06 instead of getting it fixed. We were wondering who ended up with that car. This is in Cali though.

[TheWastedYears]

I'm not too familiar w/ the electric steering system on this car, but it sounds like that has failed to some degree.

[Kirtsky]

This one had less than a hundred miles on it and was new at a dealer in georgia, so hopefully not the same.

i couldn't get the noise to duplicate and after all the experience with the '04, i am afraid that the first thing they will say will be "could not duplicate". I know there is a difference though in the feel, so they will just have to accept it.

Went out and tried it again. Normally, when you are sitting still and turn the wheel over, you can hear a slight whine in the car, I assume that that sound is the electric assist. Well, that sound is gone in my car now. You turn the wheel, there is no sound at all now...

[TheWastedYears]

Yes... that whine is from the assist. I'm assuming the steering system on our car is a slightly updated power steering system w/ an electric pump instead of pulley driven.

I read somewhere that the Cobalt has speed sensitive steering. I dunno if that's true for the Redline (I would assume so.) Perhaps whatever device interprets the VSS signal went up, so now the pump doesn't know what to do.

If the electric assist is in a static "on" state, I could see it becoming numb. If the pump went out entirely, I would think the car would be difficult to steer.

[WopOnTour]

There is no pump, or ANY hydraulic steering assist. It's totally an electrical motor providing the neccessary torque to create the assist.Yes, it is speed depandant. However if there is any major issues with the system it will set DTCs and in that event you should be observing a "PWR STR" warning on the driver information center.

The condition you describe (but including the error message) is most often caused by improper boosting practises- which may cause certain fuses to blow.

I would take it into the dealership ASAP
Wop

[Kirtsky]

Took it in this morning. My usual tech is out this week, and he is the "RedLine Guy", but felt this couldn't wait.

Thanks for the insight Wop. I didn't get any thing on the dash, and that surprised me, as the initial pop I heard was enough that I felt it in the floorboard of the car. My not have been related, but as soon as that thump happened, that is when the steering started making a racket.

Thanks again, hope it gets resolved with little issue...

I assume you mean the steering boost as the improper boosting?

[WopOnTour]

Originally Posted by Kirtsky

I assume you mean the steering boost as the improper boosting?

No I mean boosting of the car (or another) due to a dead battery (aka "a jump")
Quite often people connect the red + cable lead to the + stud emerging from the underhood fuse block (this is OK of course) BUT THEN thinking the fuseblock is actually a BATTERY they connect the black - cable clamp to the black cable attaching to the fuseblock instead of a good engine ground. That black cable is actually the Battery + feed to the Power Steering motor and the resulting cross-wired feed will usually blow the large "MAXI" fuse for the power steering system. Loss of assist and the "PWR STG" messgae are the result.

Very common believe it or not
Wop

[NoRemorse]

Originally Posted by WopOnTour

No I mean boosting of the car (or another) due to a dead battery (aka "a jump")
Quite often people connect the red + cable lead to the + stud emerging from the underhood fuse block (this is OK of course) BUT THEN thinking the fuseblock is actually a BATTERY they connect the black - cable clamp to the black cable attaching to the fuseblock instead of a good engine ground. That black cable is actually the Battery + feed to the Power Steering motor and the resulting cross-wired feed will usually blow the large "MAXI" fuse for the power steering system. Loss of assist and the "PWR STG" messgae are the result.

Very common believe it or not
Wop

I've actually got the 'PWR STG' message once. I was trying to find a wire that was 'hot' when the car was running. Put a volt meter to the electric steering.. "ding ding ding" CEL light came on, and I actually got limp mode'ed. THe damn thing wouldn't go away, so I decided to give up for about 30min, and when I came back, everything was perfectly fine. I called On* and thier scan came up with no DTC's. I like to pretend it never happened becuase I can't explain it!