The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will not launch an investigation after a lawsuit was filed in Georgia over allegedly defective steering sensors in GM vehicles.
According to Reuters, regulators had taken interest in a lawsuit filed against GM over a fatal crash involving a 42-year old woman who lost control of her 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer, rolling it into a ditch. The suit, filed in Georgia in 2016, alleges the crash was caused by a faulty steering sensor in GM vehicles that the automaker did not warn drivers about, despite the fact it had previous knowledge of problems with it.
A lawyer representing the plaintiff wrote to NHTSA earlier this year urging it to investigate GM for failing to alert NHTSA and recall affected vehicles, prompting regulators to begin examining the details of the lawsuit. The safety agency later Reuters that there was“insufficient evidence to lead to a formal investigation at this time,” over the faulty steering sensors, but said it would take action in the future if the situation evolved. The affected sensor is tied in with the vehicle’s StabiliTrak stability control system, but stability control was not required by law when the affected vehicles were manufactured, NHTSA also said in its findings.
Reuters says it has reviewed “hundreds of pages of documents,” submitted in the litigation that appear to indicate GM has dealt with a number of issues with the electronic steering sensor in question, such as warranty claims and manufacturing flaws. The publication also says it has spoken to two former heads of NHTSA that questioned the agency’s decision not to launch an investigation over the steering sensors in certain GM vehicles.
A GM spokesperson says the automaker has conducted “a rigorous analysis of internal and external data,” regarding the steering sensor and said it is “not aware of any other complaints alleging accidents,” related to the part.
The lawsuit against GM over the sensor was updated in 2020 and remains ongoing as of this writing.
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Comments
From what i’ve read if the sensor goes bad or doesn’t work stability control would just be turned off. There is no way for this to cause a accident. Stabilty control on new cars today aren’t goiing to prevent you from crashing once physics takes over, at a certain point no system is going to stop that.
The steering angle sensor went on my 2012 Silverado, another one with a commonly high issue rate. Nothing happens other than it disables Stabilitrak. You can still roll over with it on or off so a faulty sensor would have no merit on why that Trailblazer rolled over.
Watch some of those Finnish Moose Test videos and you can see how easy the CofG can get disrupted even with the nannies on.
I wonder how long the message ”service stabilitrack system” was ignored.
The rest of the story at another site details the behavior prior to said incident, and the driver is more suspect in the cause than the vehicle in this thing. An overzealous lawyer and grieving family are the roots of it.
It is horrible what happened to this woman. I don’t know if their lawsuit will be successful.
The steering issue reminds me of my 2016 GMC Yukon XL Denali (purchased new). For some unknown reason the vehicle would do a hard left hand turn out of nowhere, at different speeds, while going straight. I noticed it soon after I purchased it. The dealer couldn’t find any reason that it would happen, even though the mechanic experienced it too! They even replaced the entire steering system, and it STILL happened. Finally (after 4 trips to the dealer) I forced them to buy it back. It only had 2,450 miles on it. The dealer told me that if I’m “that worried about it” I should contact GM, to get it labeled as a lemon. So much for standing behind what they sell. He bought it back for 15K less than I paid!!! Needless to say, I’m never going back there, & I tell everyone I know about it!
I drove 2 hours away to buy my 2021.
I am getting a service stabiltrac and traction control message on my 2009 GMC Sierra 1500 4×4. The message is keeping me from getting a state inspection. The steering position sensor is no longer available for my truck and that is what I am told is causing the problem. Does anyone have a solution to this. I also can not find the part at any of my local auto parts stores.