steering problems 2004 chevy silverado

I purchased a brand new 2004 chevy silverado in April 2004. Due to my work travel requirements I tend to add 52,000 miles per year on my truck. Immediately after purchasing the truck I experienced problems with the windshield leaking. After 4 attempts, each involved removing the windshield, the Chevy dealership in my area was able to fix this problem. In the end of August I began to experience extreme drifting to the left. I would be traveling down the highway and the truck would actually move from the right lane to the left lane with no steering wheel movement. I took the truck back to the dealership and asked them to test drive it. They drove it for about 10 miles, retained the truck all day, and gave me a call that evening telling me that they could not find anything wrong with my truck. They did say that others were complaining about the same problem, but so far they have not been able to locate the source of the issue. They checked all the steering sensors and no error codes were reading. They did however make several adjustments, never specified what they did or how they did it. On the drive from the dealership to my house, about 30 miles on the highway. The drift intensified. The truck took off into the left lane, and no matter how much I turned the wheel to the right it refused to come back. After extreme brake application the truck regained full use of the steering. I called the dealership and informed them that I would be dropping the truck off the next day, and that I wanted them to keep it and drive until they resolved the issue. I received a call from the service manager the following day informing me that he was driving on the highway and had the same experience. They determined that it had to do with the electronic speed assist steering/suspension that is standard on the 2004 chevy silverado. They replaced the steering box, supposedly the speed sensor, and deemed the truck road worthy. While it was in the garage they also checked the alignment and tow. Both checked in the normal range. One month later October 24, 2004, I was driving home on the highway when I came up on a slow moving car, deciding to pass the car, I turned my wheel to the left nothing happened, I turned it again, still nothing. Panicking, I turned the steering wheel to the right hoping to manuver on to the burm to aviod hitting the car I was going to pass, again the steering did not respond. I slammed on the breaks and ended up rearending the car. After slamming on the breaks my truck regained some steering and I was able to manuver off the road. My truck was impounded by my insurance company and the state police until these parties can arange a meeting with the chevy inspector to determine the actual cause of the mechanical failure. Chevy first wanted to settle outside of court with no inspection in order to keep the entire incident quite. Infact they still want to stick with this option, but they are dragging their feet. My rental car insurance runs out in 5 more days, and I will not have any transportation for work, so I am contacting a law firm to begin a class action law suit. If anybody has had any of these problems. Please contact me and share the details.

My best friend was killed on August 8th of this year when his 2004 2500HD left the road for no apparant reason and rolled several times ejecting him out of the vehicle. His widow had someone check the truck for problems and none were found. We have all tried to figure out what happened to cause this. After reading your statement I have to wonder if something similar happened to him. The accident happened on a Sunday morning at 7:00 am and no other vehicles were suspected nor did my friend drink. He had called his Dad two days before the accident and said that he had to hang up because his truck had locked up and he needed to get out of traffic. If you can give us any information that you may have found or find later about this matter we would greatly appreciate it as he has left behind a young wife with two boys ages 3yrs. and 5 monthes. We have all had to endure the lost of a good man and father. Thankyou and Godbless.

I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune on the chevy truck. I too had alot of front end problems on my silverado. I took it back to the dealership many times for repairs and they could not find anyhting wrong.It was always givin back to me without no repairs being done.It seems like the whole truck was plagued with problems that the dealership did not want to deal with. I finally got so fed up with it that I traded it in for another vehicle.Sorry to say I didnt go back to A chevy again...

I have a 2004 silverado ext cab and on the interstate (couldn't tell in city) it was drifting to the left. I thought my driving ability was getting worse. :uhoh: I took it in and they adjusted to alignment some although it was in specs. I will be on the interstate this weekend and will let you know how it worked out. I had a 1999 grand marquis that pulled to right when you would let go of the steering wheel when it was new. after about 3,000 miles I took it in and the alignment was checked and it was within factory specs. The tech took it for a ride, came back and adjusted the alignment some and I never had a problem with it again. I hope my silverado is the same.

frank

Please include me in the lawsuit because I am having problems with my steering in that when I turn it to the right or left it gets loose and have to turn it back to stiffen up the steering. I have had the Idler Arm and Pitman arm replaced and the problem is still there. I have a 1998 Chevrolet 1500 2WD Silverado with 92,000 miles on it and has been having this problem since about 80,000 miles. I am going to unplug the power assist and see if it goes away. If it does not, I will replace the ball joints and see if that takes care of it. Please keep me informed of how the lawsuit goes as I will want chevy to fix mine. Thank you and have a great day!

I'm also having steering problems with my 2000 Silverado. The steering wheel will lock up and wont budge until i either rev the engine or rock the truck. The steering will also stiffin up to the point of acting like manual steering. I dont even bother bringing it to the Stealer because they only take your money and dont bother checking out the problem.

I own a 2006 Chevy Silverado. I can feel and hear thumping in the steering column when going over bumps and turning and it seems to wonder all over the road. Also then starting and stoping there is a thud and hesitation like a chain is slipping in the tansfer case or something. I am very hesitant to go anywhere in it. Any suggestions on a repair so I don't spend time and money on worthless fixes like the repair shops like to do? Any advice would be greatly apreciated!

HOLY OLD POST BATMAN!!!!!

Sounds like you have the infamous intermediate steering shaft clunk making your noise. Take it loose from the bottom of the steering column and stroke it a couple times to redistribute the grease in it then put it back on, noise is fixed for a while again. They all do it, over and over, no problems there just annoying as all get out.

As for the wandering, jack it up one side at a time and give it the jiggle. Sounds like unit bearings, ball joints, tie rods, something along those lines.
Oh yeah, with this kind of supension, jack it up under the lower control arm so it unloads the ball joints to check them.

Does anybody know what the outcome of the original experiences was?
Did Chevy acknowledge a probem and fix it? Is there ongoing litigation?