Electric steering lockup

[noshooz]

My daughter took her driver's license road test in my 03 VUE yesterday and almost failed the parallel parking portion because the steering wheel was freezing up and becoming very hard to turn. This caused her to exceed the alloted three minutes for that part of the test. Fortunately the examiner cut her some slack and let her pass.
I mentioned this to a local Saturn service rep and she said it's normal, it's caused by the electric steering motor temporarily shutting down to prevent itself from overheating. I've never parallel parked my VUE before but have had moments when leaving a tight parking area where the steering suddenly got difficult.
This sounds like a design flaw of some sort. Your steering should not freeze up suddenly.

[D C]

A couple of things come to mind:

First, check the tire pressure. A low tire takes an awful lot more force to turn than does a properly inflated one.

Second, any steering system can be steered fast enough to overrun the pump/motor or whatever is providing the assist. Pumps can only supply fluid so fast to a hydraulic steering system, and electric motors can only supply torque so fast to an EPS system like the VUE has. I routinely catch the steering system in the VUE when I'm parking, but then again, I do also in my other cars that has a hydraulic system. I think I just steer faster than most people.

If it was an extraordinarily rough/rocky surface, I could see the tread catching on the aggregate in the road and making it harder to turn, too.

[1saxman]

Operator trouble - loose nut behind the wheel. We have never experienced any such thing on our two '03s, so I can only ascribe such an occurrence to the driver. I can see how a teenager could get into trouble trying to parallel-park and consequently overheat the steering, but not an experienced driver.

[Tom92SCm]

Sounds like the system was designed pretty well actually. How would you like to overheat your steering motor while jerking around trying to parallel park, then decide to go around the block to find a different spot with an overheated steering motor and have it catastropically fail while at speed and in traffic?

[burnout]

I went parallel parking in my vue (and took my road test in it) many times before my road test, and never had a problem. The motor would occasionally sound as if it hated me, but never gave out.

Or maybe I'm just that awesome.

[djb383]

I went parallel parking in my vue (and took my road test in it) many times before my road test, and never had a problem. The motor would occasionally sound as if it hated me, but never gave out.

Or maybe I'm just that awesome.

And modest too! :no: LOL

[James Gerber]

Well.. if it's happened to someone... and not to many others, then it sounds like there could be something wrong with that particular VUE.

And kinda sucks that the dealership is saying "it's normal".

So far I've noticed once and a while that mine is a litter tougher than normal to turn, but usually it's accompanied by the infamous "metal on rubber" squeeking noise. And yeah... tire pressure has alot to do with it too.

[body-snatch-her]

I've never run into it in any vehicle I've ever drove, even when squeezing into spaces that are so small most people won't attempt it! I should add that this includes Arizona summer heat!

[Ritz]

Well.. if it's happened to someone... and not to many others, then it sounds like there could be something wrong with that particular VUE.

And kinda sucks that the dealership is saying "it's normal".

So far I've noticed once and a while that mine is a litter tougher than normal to turn, but usually it's accompanied by the infamous "metal on rubber" squeeking noise. And yeah... tire pressure has alot to do with it too.

I agree with James. I think there's just something wrong with that particular VUE. Parallel parking shouldn't be enough to overtax a properly working pump. Having the steering bind up for ANY reason is cause for concern so if that dealer won't address the issue then I'd find another dealer and document this problem with Saturn corporate.

Cheers,

[D C]

How long was she steering before the assist went away? Was it after 2 minutes or so, or was it right at the start of parking? Having a system with an overheating sort of protection built in isn't surprising. So if there's a problem depends on how long she was steering before the system went into self-preservation mode (if that's what happened).

[noshooz]

Operator trouble - loose nut behind the wheel. We have never experienced any such thing on our two '03s, so I can only ascribe such an occurrence to the driver. I can see how a teenager could get into trouble trying to parallel-park and consequently overheat the steering, but not an experienced driver.

I've had it happen to me too, so I take extreme offense at your comment. My daughter is not a loose nut behind the wheel. Bite me.

[James Gerber]

Have you contacted the dealer again?
keep us updated.

and like DC said, can you replicate the problem?

If so, perhaps you can go to the dealer, demonstrate to them how the stearing fails.
Then take a new VUE off their lot, and do the same stearing and see if it happens to it as well.

Unless it's completely random. ie: you can do heavy stearing and not have it happen, and other times, light stearing and have it happen. etc..

[burlyvue2]

:eek:

James Gerber wrote "Well.. if it's happened to someone... and not to many others, then it sounds like there could be something wrong with that particular VUE.

And kinda sucks that the dealership is saying "it's normal". "

This is the first time I have read that there was a problem with a Vue's electric steering assist. I drive my Vue hard and after 114k miles have never had an issue like noshooz has described. It is definitely NOT normal. I would make sure noshooz' Vue gets into the shop and diagnosed as it is NOT normal for the power assist to just stop. Seems like a serious safety issue to me.

noshooz wrote " I've had it happen to me too, so I take extreme offense at your comment. My daughter is not a loose nut behind the wheel. Bite me. "

I know it sux when folks make "off handed remarks" without thinking. Please get your Vue into the shop and let us know what the results are? :yes:

:flag:

[noshooz]

I haven't had this problem re-occur for me since my original post. Actually, I probably used the wrong word in describing it - the steering didn't actually 'freeze up', it just became quite difficult. It only lasted for a couple of seconds then the steering was OK. I'll mention it again at my next service visit, especially if a different service rep takes my vehicle.
I'm guessing it happened to my daughter during her driving test because the test here (Maryland) involves slow driving on a closed course. My thinking is that having to make a lot of slow manuevers at slow speeds over time could have caused the steering motor to become excessively hot by the time she got to the parallel parking portion.

[KCW]

Only thing I can think of that the driver could do to cause this would be to turn the wheel when the car is not moving.

The steering load goes up significantly if the car is at a standstill, and you are cranking the wheel from one side to the other. When you parallel park you should be steering and backing at the same time, in one smooth continuous motion. Generally speaking you should never turn the steering wheel on any car unless the car is (at least) moving slowly.

Only other thing I can think of is if you turned the wheel into the curb, and kept turning it. The power steering on the Vue is very strong (very easy to turn the wheel). I could see that happening easily, esp when you are stressed out (driving test).

[sportridertex]

The electric steering on the VUE is all electric , the system does not have any fluid in it, no pumps involved, nothing to pump.

[turbotoad]

I've noticed this phenomina in my Redline. It only occurs when the vehicle is moving very slow(<5mph) and the steering wheel is rotated very quickly. The steering effort will suddenly become much harder.

I've nearly side swiped cars trying to turn into a parking spots that I didn't notice right away and "whipped" into at the last minute. Requiring very quick rotation of the steering wheel while simultaniously slowing (braking) to a stop. The steering suddenly becomes very difficult and slow.

For some reason the electric power steering motor is overcome when the steering wheel is spun faster than a certain RPM at very slow vehicle speeds, and the power "boost" is lost or at least greatly compromised.

This is probably what noshooz' daughter was experiencing. She was most likely turning the steering wheel faster than the system could cope with at low vehicle speeds.

[harsha]

Have an 06 Ion-2. Just sharing my experience with electric assisted steering. Every once in awhile, I have similar problem when backing out of my garage(tight spot, slow backing and turning steering while moving). I loose power steering for a sec or so and Later steering gets hard to turn. Remember for me, It only happens while driving less than 5 MPH and mostly during first start(cold??). Had the dealer check this out to say "problem couldn't be duplicated". I understand where you are comming from(poster), It's hard to describe and even harder to duplicate.

Good luck!! keep us posted about the findings!!

[asrawlings@mchs]

I've noticed this phenomina in my Redline. It only occurs when the vehicle is moving very slow(<5mph) and the steering wheel is rotated very quickly. The steering effort will suddenly become much harder.

I've nearly side swiped cars trying to turn into a parking spots that I didn't notice right away and "whipped" into at the last minute. Requiring very quick rotation of the steering wheel while simultaniously slowing (braking) to a stop. The steering suddenly becomes very difficult and slow.

For some reason the electric power steering motor is overcome when the steering wheel is spun faster than a certain RPM at very slow vehicle speeds, and the power "boost" is lost or at least greatly compromised.

This is probably what noshooz' daughter was experiencing. She was most likely turning the steering wheel faster than the system could cope with at low vehicle speeds.

My Vue does the exact same thing as well under these same circumstances. I usually don't think twice about it because it doesn't last but a second or two.