Today's newspaper talked of a recall of C-5s for steering wheel lock-up at speeds greater than 5 mph. Stated several known crashes and many dealer fixes. Is there a TSB or Recall for this problem? What is Fix?
Anyone have this problem?
Thanks in advance for your input. Bill

 

To the best of my knowledge there is no TSB or general recall...only a quasi-effective GM modification (the fix sometimes doesn't work) for cars in a GM determined VIN range (although problems exist for cars outside this range) if there is a "suspected" steeering column lock problem. For years many vette owners purchased an aftermarket device to bypass this problem anti-theft mechanism. :cheers:


[Modified by Vetts Forever, 2:56 PM 12/20/2002]

 

I caught the tale end of the story on the 12:00 news something about a recall for a steering lock problem 97-2001 corvettes. will watch the news at 5:00 to get the whole story

 

The Seattle Times story said, "the Fed Gov has intensified its investigation after receiving hundreds of complaintsof steering wheel lockup causing loss of driver control...25 crashes, 10 injuries reported covering 131,981 cars from 1997-2001 model years. 344 complaints while car traveling between 5mph and 65. Gm also filded 24,127 warranty claims about the condition"
Too many times have we had ours @well over 120mph and Lady Luck has allowed me to be here to ask the question, "is mine a good one of bad one?"
You can see why I posted my question! Bill

 

I work in the media and brought home the AP wire story today. It says basically the same thing as the Seattle Times story.

I too thought this was odd, since I was under the impression that the column lock only affected cars that were sitting still.

I sure wouldn't turn the ignition on and off while driving the car... that is scary to think of the degree of faith I place in the car in turns at high speeds.

All of this for a theft deterrent that never even worked well anyway!

 

Reporters have been known to embellish a report a little to make it more spectacular. Remember the Dateline report on exploding Gas Tanks on the GM pickups made from 73 through 87? When they did their test crash they had to help it a little to get it to explode. Wouldn't have helped the story if the tank hadn't exploded.
Bill

 

As usual, great excitement sells news stories. I had the column lock problem and had it corrected at the dealer. I am very skeptical about the news stories that there were injuries involved. The fact is, if you have a column lock failure, you can't go three feet without the engine shutting down, etc. I very seriously doubt that there were any injuries involved. I'm a pilot and it's like every news story you hear about an airplane crash, someons says that the plane came "spinning out of the clouds", etc.

The column lock was an idea to deter theft. It has caused numerous problems, but when there are probably 140K C5's out there, how many have had it, and what damage has it done. COH has a CLB if you are worried about it. Or maybe you should wait to see if it happens and then take it to the dealer. I posted a temporary fix that I had after it happened to me, but I can tell you that in my case, if the car moved three feet it would shut down, so I seriously doubt that you have anything to worry about unless in a parking lot or your garage.

If you leave it to news people, you could accidentally hit a bird while driving down the road and by the time it hit the 6 o'clock news, it would be reported as an eagle shot down by a subversive organization with a surface-to-air missle.

Get the COH mod or wait and see if it happens to you. I don't think that it is a recall at this point, but it does have a TSB if it happens.


[Modified by FunDriver, 10:22 PM 12/20/2002]

 

:iagree: :cheers:

 

Has everyone forgotten? There is already a recall for the column lock system! Both my 98 and my 99 were recalled. If I had a scanner I'd post a pic of the recall letter for you.

The GM recall disabled the system in the auto trans cars and replaced/added a relay and new lock cylinder in the manual trans cars.

I didn't take either of my cars in though. I elected to use the CLB. With this system the lock cylinder is completely removed from the wiring harness.

Tom