The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has closed an investigation into power steering problems in certain Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks after General Motors issued a recall for affected vehicles.
The NHTSA investigation was launched after GM issued a recall for certain Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks back in 2016 over power steering problems. According to Car Complaints, the recall was issued after GM received numerous reports that the trucks could experience a sudden loss of power steering. However, only 3,000 trucks were involved in the recall campaign – representing a very small percentage of the Colorado and Canyon vehicles that were on the road at the time.
NHTSA went on to receive 50 more complaints regarding sudden loss of power steering in 2015 model year Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon vehicles between 2016 and 2019, all of which involved vehicles that were not included in the initial recall campaign. The safety watchdog later discovered more than 340 owner complaints that were sent to the government and another 924 steering complaints that had been sent to GM. Seven of these reports indicated the sudden loss of power steering resulted in a crash, Car Complaints reports.
The emergence of these additional complaints prompted NHTSA to launch an investigation into the matter. The agency has now closed the investigation, however, after GM issued a recall for just over 60,000 examples of the affected trucks in April of this year. GM says the sudden power steering loss can be traced back to corroded connectors, which may have damaged by the supplier before they were installed at the factory. NHTSA says it will now monitor the recall campaign to ensure the power steering problems do not persist after the vehicles are repaired.
GM has also determined that only 2015 Chevy Colorado and 2015 GMC Canyon trucks built after May 22nd, 2015 are affected by this problem. For more information on the recall, readers should pore over our dedicated article on the campaign that we published in April of this year.
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My 2016 Canyon suddenly lost power steering and the error code appeared for the first time since I have had it. Called the dealer and he told me that my VIN number was not in the recall and that there was only a few in my state that were affected. I could bring it in and they can see about getting it covered by it is doubtful. The recall should have gone out to more vehicles or GM should have been put on notice that should this happen in other 2016 Canyons and Colorado trucks they need to investigate and fix. I filed a report and spoke to someone at the NTSB and they said they have received a lot of complaints since this was closed but seem to be sitting on their hands.
I went out to my truck the morning of March 16, 2023. Upon starting the truck I saw in the dashboard information center "service power steering" and "Stabilitrak-Stability control" notifications. My truck had absolutely no power steering. Later in the day I arranged to have the vehicle loaded onto a car carrier and delivered to the dealer - Bob Allen Chevrolet here in Danville. They told me the problem will cost $1,750 to fix and, BTW, the parts are on back-order with no ETA. Tonight I checked several sites on the internet and find that these problems with this truck are epidemic! Also Chevrolet recalled some 60,000 2015 Chevrolet Colorado's for this identical problem but thus far they have not recalled any 2016 Colorado's even though the problems and the parts are identical. I am very thankful this problem occurred in my driveway! Other owners have had this happen on the interstate at high speeds or in traffic. I think that Chevrolet should/must be forced to issue a recall and fix this known issue on these trucks. Someone is going to get killed if it hasn't happened already. I filed a complaint with the NHTSA
I appreciate hearing that I am not alone. My 2016 Colorado has the same issues with no luck from dealership. It never happens when I take it to them, only on the highway or in residential areas. This is getting really old.