Locked steering, please help

[Liz73]

Hi guys. I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out. I have a 2000 Buick LeSabre. It's been running fine, no problems until today when I was driving. The steering wheel pretty much locked up on me. The battery light came on, and the VOLT word was lit up. Thankfully I was on a straight side road with nobody behind me when it happened. I was able to move the steering wheel enough to pull over, and I turned the car off, re-started it and it was fine for the rest of the way home. Any idea what caused this to happen? I'm paranoid now that this will happen during rush hour on the way to work.

[imidazol97]

The steering became heavy because the power assist from the motor was lost when the motor died. The steering wheel can be turned but it takes a lot of force compared to normal.

The stall could be from crankshaft position sensor if the car has high miles. That cuts off the ignition, but the car will restart immediately or sometimes has to cool for several minutes before it will restart.

The stall could have been from an ignition switch that is wearing or not making good contact--that's the switch that's down on the steering wheel, not the ignition key lock cylinder up at the top.

Those would be the first things I'd check.