Sudden Loss of Power Steering WHEN DRIVING

[Banjo79]

Had mine at Holden today. And thanks to no fault codes showing, nothing is getting done! However if Id like to part with $2219, I can have it done if Im worried. They were even going to charge me to look at it until customer care became involved. Was told after a few starts, codes would be gone and to bring it straight in if/when it does it next (assuming Im not wrapped around a tree).

Go here to read how to submit an online vehicle safety report and submit a report of your safety concern to DOTARS.

Then ring Holden Customer Care and tell them your Dealer wouldn't fix a known issue that other Dealers have repaired under warrenty (and in many cases, even for out of warranty vehicles).

Suggest to HCC that some of their dealers may not be trained well enough about this known power steering failure (or less known self steering) issues via Holden Technical Service Bulletins or (ghost) Recall Notices. Also suggest to HCC that is a serious safety issue that can only be classified as a major fault under Australian Consumer Law and that you are assessing what remedy you will choose. Possibly ask HCC to recommend a dealer that knows about these issues where you can discuss repair scenarios as a possible remedy. ALSO mention you have reported your safety concern with the power steering failure to DOTARS.

Finally politely demand the HCC staff membed discuss this issue internally with their manager and have their manager call you back with within 5 days with an answer as to how Holden proposes to resolve you major fault. Then politely hang up.

In fact, it's probably better that you handle all the above in writing to HCC via email. Then you cn give serious thought to actually demanding a full refund of the vehicle purchase price as your chosen remedy which is what the ACL provides as a remedy you can choose for a major fault.

I bet you'll get a call back from your dealer stating they will sort it out under warranty, though i'd prefer someone to actually exercise their rights in law and demand and then get a full refund of purchase price. Heck, that is what i'd be demanding if i suffered a major fault.

I have registered with DOTARS and spoke with HCC through an online chat. They tried to palm me back off to the local service manager that wants me to drive the thing until an error code happens. Funny, first when booking in the car they told me not to drive it, after they looked at it, they want me to drive it to get an error code (or die trying)! I told them it was unacceptable to refer me back to the local service manager that wont help me and demanded I speak to her manager or someone above her that knows of the issue. She persisted in telling me to take it back to Holden. I counter persisted. I now have a HCC manager ringing/emailing within 24hrs. Skylarking, thanks for all the suggestions and support. Now the Mrs wants to go for the throat and get the full refund of purchase price!

 

[Skylarking]

No idea, it was thought to test. Strange that your quote of my original post is incorrect...

My iPad does funny things on occassions, especially with cursor placement and copy/paste.... fixed so it's quoted correctly now

 

[RockDAhouse]

I have registered with DOTARS and spoke with HCC through an online chat. They tried to palm me back off to the local service manager that wants me to drive the thing until an error code happens. Funny, first when booking in the car they told me not to drive it, after they looked at it, they want me to drive it to get an error code (or die trying)! I told them it was unacceptable to refer me back to the local service manager that wont help me and demanded I speak to her manager or someone above her that knows of the issue. She persisted in telling me to take it back to Holden. I counter persisted. I now have a HCC manager ringing/emailing within 24hrs. Skylarking, thanks for all the suggestions and support. Now the Mrs wants to go for the throat and get the full refund of purchase price!

When the error pops up and we turn the car off, error disappear. So when Holden plug their scan tools in, is the error getting recorded?

 

[Banjo79]

Codes are there for only a few "key turns" I was told. If I get no joy from mr manager from customer care tomorrow, I will muscle the car to holden next time it happens and keep it running. That way the code is definately there as is the message on the screen.

 

[killingwithasmile]

hey mate, do you have the parts or work order for this repair?

Here’s my repair receipt

 

[Pablito]

How can any Holden dealer play dumb to this issue?
It was well publicised back in late 2014 early 2015 that Chevy recalled the VF's we sent over there. They had the loss of power steering problem so they were all recalled and power steering racks replaced free of charge.
The problem was identified as parts corroding as result of water damage. A design fault.

Holden sent out a letter in February 2015 to all Australian VF owners, titled 'Power steering loss of assistance '. These letters listed the problem and next service a product was to be applied to the effected area to prevent water penetration to these parts.

So basically the yanks dealt with it properly and Holden applied a bandaid. A bandaid that seems to be failing judging by the number of people recently experiencing this loss of steering.

So really, any dealer or Holden Care person saying they have no idea what the loss of power steering alert in the dash means, is lying.

 

[RockDAhouse]

thanks heaps killingwithasmile !!! and this doesn't include the parts that mine mechanic has replaced. I'm guessing to fix the root cause of this issue, steering rack need replacing. Hope this work order help banjo79.

 

[Pablito]

Here’s my repair receipt
View attachment 198175

Thanks for posting that.
I notice the warranty repair has a PRA number. I thought those numbers were used for tracking recalls? Interesting.....
Was the repair covered under used car warranty or did Holden cover it?

 

[killingwithasmile]

Thanks for posting that.
I notice the warranty repair has a PRA number. I thought those numbers were used for tracking recalls? Interesting.....
Was the repair covered under used car warranty or did Holden cover it?

Yep completely covered by Holden, I do have a dealer warranty from their used car dept but wasn’t required and doubt it would have covered full cost.

 

[Skylarking]

I have registered with DOTARS and spoke with HCC through an online chat. They tried to palm me back off to the local service manager that wants me to drive the thing until an error code happens. Funny, first when booking in the car they told me not to drive it, after they looked at it, they want me to drive it to get an error code (or die trying)! I told them it was unacceptable to refer me back to the local service manager that wont help me and demanded I speak to her manager or someone above her that knows of the issue. She persisted in telling me to take it back to Holden. I counter persisted. I now have a HCC manager ringing/emailing within 24hrs. Skylarking, thanks for all the suggestions and support. Now the Mrs wants to go for the throat and get the full refund of purchase price!

Hope all goes well for you and you get the remedy you want.

Obviously the better the preparation, the more likely you are to succeed without excessive struggle. So if your going for a full refund, also talk to your state consumer group to get some advise but also read the ACL and get familiar with the terminology. You can find ACL via google, here, click on 'Competition and Consumer Act 2010' and within volume 3 you should find section 2 which is the ACL. It's a rather big bit of legistlation which spans 6 chapters that you should read and understand but much of it is not relevant to you so skim the doc (intelligently)

What should help you is the statements already made by the service department which sounds like they can only be made buy an untrained bunch or monkeys. To recommend you to not drive, then recommend you drive the unsafe vehicle to test it for them can only be interpreted that they don't understand the danger of this major fault and indicates that your safety is not paramount in their thinking. To then make you an offer to spend $$ to fix what should be a recall, as your concerned about your families safety, is likely against the ACCC undertaking made by Holden.

All this is a good reason to not what to deal with such a bunch of people and should confirm your view that your chosen remedy of a full refund is not unreasonable.

Good luck.