Well I thought that I was going to dodge the broken component with my 2017 Z06....guess not.....coming home tonight from San Antonio to New Braunfels cruising along doing 70.....my dash warning came on saying Service Power Steering Soon....yeah no kidding it went from normal to pure pain in the *** to drive and trying to turn....that is so not fun doing 70 in traffic....So Monday I'll call my dealer and see how they want to deal with it either come get or do you they want me to drive it to their location in Schertz.

There was no warning no oil on the ground no broken belts nothing.....they'll take care of me and I've got 7600 miles on it.....oh well **** happens.

 

Update to this issue.....I went back out to restart the car after playing with my GSD....and sure enough the power steering worked.....still going to the dealer with it on Monday and see if it threw any codes at all.

 

Take it to the dealer and see if they find anything. You won't find fluid or belts causing the problem with this steering since it is electric assist so no hydraulic pump involved. Problems are more often due to bad power or ground connections.

 

There's a thread here with 2017s having power steeeing failures like yours.

 

I could only assume that there's some type of manual to fold I pray to God LOL?

that's the problem with technology they just put an extra parts in there that anything can go wrong with them but we love the tech so we'll keep buying included yeah please let us know what they say in the end got to be some type of connection wire processor issue?

 

This has happened to me twice with my 17' Z06/Z07, once at 26 miles and now again at 262 miles, the first time was slower speed so it was not as much of an issue, found a bad connector believed to be the issue, this time was a different story, it was an off ramp at 60 mph in the middle of the turn, thank god for great brakes. Thought this was a heat issue because the first time was a hundred degrees and all fluids temps were in the 230-250 range, but this time is was 55 degrees outside and all fluids temps were under 200. So they ordered a new steering rack, not want you want to hear with your new car, this car has already been in the shop more than my last 12 corvettes combined, and I still have not hit 300 miles.

 

both posters (hcv, bowtie), plz do a follow up in awhile and tell us if it cured the problem, for now.

 

Here's a link
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...g-failure.html

 

I had mine saying " Service Power steering soon" few months back while driving 70-80 mph, but it still worked fine, so I just hit the dismiss button and kept going. Hasn't shown up since... Surprised you guys are getting that and the rack not working.

 

Do you have the "Range " devise installed? This was a constant issue on my Camaro SS.

 

This same issue happened to my 2016 A8 z07! Turns out it was overheating and right before it hit red limit for heat warning the first thing it did was pull the power steering and say "service soon". I made it home turned the car off, started the next day and no issue. I haven't had an issue since as it has been cooler out and I now watch my temps and if they creep up I shut off the AC and also switch it into Drive mode.

 

No mine is 100% stock at this time, when the "service power steering" message has come on, only twice, it was 100% loss of power steering at that time.

 

See I thought it was a heat issue as well, it was 100 degrees and the cars fluids were all in the 230 plus range the first time this happened to me at 26 miles, the car was 4 hours old, the next day it was fine when I took it to the dealership, had codes but worked perfectly, they did find a crushed connector and replaced it, so the next 200 miles were trouble free, then it happened Saturday and it was 55 degrees and all fluids were under 200 degrees. So they say replace the steering rack and steering module, so we will see, good I bought a hellcat too, that has yet to need repairs.

 

Just returned from dealership, read error codes and ordered steering rack and steering control module, will update condition after repair

 

So an update....took it to my dealer Gunn Chevrolet and told the service rep what happened and he said he would get the Vette Tech to read the codes if any showed up.....sure enough it popped two codes one for the steering issue and the other related to my exhaust control....I told the service tech not to worry about that as I removed fuse #42 as I didn't buy a Z to drive in stealth mode etc...he laughed.....So they are ordering both the steering rack and the module they weren't taking any chances they said and they would call me when the parts arrived to schedule the repair to be done. They also are giving me a loaner when it goes into the shop for repair.

 

Thanks for the update, mine is sitting in my garage, as I live 5 minutes from the dealership, that said they would have the parts this week, we will see.

 

A fellow club member had his car lemon lawed for steering failure..2017 GS. Really scary condition if you cant steer the car!

 

To clarify, losing power steering is definitely NOT a good thing but the electric steering is an assist system just like the older hydraulic systems. You still have control via the steering wheel but with the wide and sticky front tires on these cars you had better be prepared to exert some real effort.

I am not trying to belittle the problem of losing power steering and if a batch of bad parts that went out GM needs to treat this as a recall BUT some people equate electric steering with "steer by wire" and that isn't the case with this system. You still have the solid mechanical connection from the steering wheel into the rack and pinion system but the electric assist motor is no longer helping you. Losing it as you are going into or coming out of a curve would not be optimal, to put it mildly, and if it goes out during parking lot maneuvers you will wish you had kept up with your gym workout but you do still have steering control. Several years ago I lost a belt on a 3/4 ton GMC diesel pickup which uses hydraboost brakes with the brake boost coming from the power steering pump so I simultaneously lost power brake and power steering assist on a TN mountain road. Not fun but I survived the adventure.

 

I agree with some of what you say, I drove back 46 miles to my house without PS, on the highway no issue, but have it stop working in the middle of a turn at speed, with say my wife driving, it would have been a very different story, probably with lots of broken pieces. It's really something that you don't want to have to be thinking about when you buy a car like this, and drive it at the speeds these cars like to go. I own 60 & 70 muscle cars without PS, they all have a much bigger steering wheel and require MUCH less effort compared to the Z06's steering when the power goes out. If this would happen in my escalade it's wouldn't be as much of an issue, you can roll up curbs without any damage, it's tougher when the car has 2" clearance.

 

hcvone,
I know what you mean and the combination of fast ratio steering, a small steering wheel, and wide tires will bite you when the power assist fails. The electric assist systems aren't as reliable yet as the older hydraulic systems they replaced but I expect that reliability will be improved soon. I have a 2014 ATS and there was a TSB out for it about electric assist errors occurring at startup which isn't nearly as dangerous as a random failure while driving. Fortunately my 2016 Z06 has been trouble free but that certainly hasn't been true for 2017 production steering systems.

I never cared for the concept of the four wheel steering GM offered on some of their pickup models for a few years. The rear wheel steering was fully under electric control and the direction it would take with relation to the front steering wheel changed based upon speed; at slow speed they turned in opposition to the front to provide improved parking lot maneuverability while at high speed they turned with the fronts to improve stability. Although I never heard of a failure I could only imagine what would happen if a glitch caused the rear wheels to turn the wrong direction during a high speed maneuver.

I also think part of the electric steering issue has the same root cause as many other current new car issues in that the suppliers are being beaten with cost cutting by the auto manufacturers and they are in turn cutting cost in design and production resulting in problems. I am getting ready to order a new GMC Sierra Denali heavy duty pickup and have been doing some research on recent problems and although the problem hopefully has now been addressed the 2016 2500 and 3500 series pickups had a lot of steering system issues with the tried and true hydraulic assist system because of excessive play in the steering gear. That system had worked perfectly for many years but apparently changes in manufacturing caused a previously near trouble free part to suddenly become a major pain for owners and dealers.