Steering locked while driving

[JeepNut]

yes mine is now booked in for the 12th of January, they have the star bulletin number that shadow provided, mine has done this about 5 times also but has always come back around 30-40 km/h...and yes, on 37" tires it's a handful, it just wants to go straight, quite unsafe

Pump finally came in and I picked mine back up yesterday. I’m not sold it’s the pump but time will tell.

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[ShadowsPapa]

Lets be clear here. Though losing power steering is dangerous, its nowhere near as bad as having the steering actually LOCK while driving.

Those of us who are old enough to have driven carbureted cars know that cars used to stall. And when they stalled you lost power steering and when you lost power steering you recognized the situation quickly and just put some more muscle into it.

Younger drivers won't have this experience and when they are used to steering with 2 fingers and you lose the power assist, they don't know what to do next. This is (surprisingly) not a criticism of millennial and GenZers. They haven't been conditioned to muscle it around when the power assist fails. Though as I'm writing this I realize that with wider tires and faster steering ratios it would probably take substantially more effort to "Armstrong" steer it than on an older car.

These are quite different when losing power steering - especially if the wheels and tires have been changed. Change the scrub radius and the tire width and you may not be strong enough to move quickly enough.........

 

[NC_Overland]

I didn’t read through all six pages, but the OP lost power assist and thought the steering was locked up and put it in a ditch? Please tell me that isn’t true.

 

[am1978]

There is this recent Y95 recall in the JL forum. I will not be applying this one to the wife’s 2018 JL until they unscrew what they are doing in their software update. The update has killed multiple JL owners’ AC/Heat and still didn’t fix the steering issue.

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/recall-y-95-steering-assist-what-is-that.84603/

 

[ShadowsPapa]

LOL - ya think Jeep is alone????

 

[Maximus Gladius]

LOL - ya think Jeep is alone????

You’re a hound!

 

[NatForest Glad]

This happened to me. Lost power assist. Just happen to be on a straight section of road coming out of a mountain section and felt very stiff steering. Went thru two curve in about five miles. Came to a pullout and slowed down and pulled in and it freed as I came to a stop. Outside temp was about 9 F. Purchased in August, problem in December and not since. As others stated I have experienced in past vehicles. Since I am the only driver I am waiting to see if it happens again before my next scheduled dealer visit this month.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

This happened to me. Lost power assist. Just happen to be on a straight section of road coming out of a mountain section and felt very stiff steering. Went thru two curve in about five miles. Came to a pullout and slowed down and pulled in and it freed as I came to a stop. Outside temp was about 9 F. Purchased in August, problem in December and not since. As others stated I have experienced in past vehicles. Since I am the only driver I am waiting to see if it happens again before my next scheduled dealer visit this month.

Most likely won’t be a code either. Fortunately for us when it happened, maybe 10 times, my wife wasn’t driving. There would be full on panic and she wouldn’t be able to arm strong steer it.

When it happens, reach under the passenger wheel well and put your hand on the pump. Is it smoke’n hot? Would it burn your hand if you touched it too long?

For me, the pump would quit when it got real hot. I was able to just drive to the dealership and let it idle. It was over an hour before it quit and the tech could hook up his scanner to determine the pump was shot. They did come back out to check my tire size and saw I only went up one size and that was ok for warranty replacement.

 

[dcmdon]

These are quite different when losing power steering - especially if the wheels and tires have been changed. Change the scrub radius and the tire width and you may not be strong enough to move quickly enough.........

I realize this but there is a difference between recognizing it for what it is and muscling through it and being paralyzed with "Oh my god, its locked".

If you are moving fast enough and don't need a whole lot of lock then pushing ahead muscling it around might save your bacon. If in your head the steering has "locked" then you won't push.

We're getting into the psychology of human failure here more than actual mechanics and we're both speculating. But I used to design user interfaces for business software and its amazing how people give up in user acceptance testing when they think there is no resolution. I'm obviously speculating wildly. ha.

 

[JeepNut]

This happened to me. Lost power assist. Just happen to be on a straight section of road coming out of a mountain section and felt very stiff steering. Went thru two curve in about five miles. Came to a pullout and slowed down and pulled in and it freed as I came to a stop. Outside temp was about 9 F. Purchased in August, problem in December and not since. As others stated I have experienced in past vehicles. Since I am the only driver I am waiting to see if it happens again before my next scheduled dealer visit this month.

When I experienced the failures it was always during start up after the vehicle had sat either during the day at work or overnight. Only on one occasion did it clear while driving, the other times it remained faulted until the truck was started again. I was able to have the dealer verify the issue on 2 occasions as I drove it straight there with warning light on and did not shut it off.

 

[Matt D]

I had this happen Tuesday it was cold. I accelerated and lost power steering for about 30 seconds. I slowed for a red light and it came back. Took to the dealer today they have no idea. 2020 Gladiator with 7000 miles

 

[LNRDR2021]

I just had the steering lock up on my 2021 Gladiator that has 5k miles on it. I was going down a straight stretch of highway at 70 miles and hour and tapped the brakes, then the steering mostly locked straight. I was able to turn the wheel just enough to merge lanes and exit the highway. When I stopped at the end of the off ramp, the steering worked again normal. Not a good impression of a brand new jeep.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Jeep ain't the only one with this issue -

 

[dcmdon]

So today I had an interesting thing happen.

I was driving back from the ski area to my house in NH. It was 10 deg out. The truck was warmed up and I was following a car going 30 in a 50 zone.

So I stomped on the gas and passed it.

As soon as the transmission kicked down I lost my power steering. No big deal I'm going 50 mph and I"m using "Armstrong" steering. I'm annoyed but not worried.

After 5 minutes I put my signal on and begin to pull over thinking I'll restart the truck and "reboot" it and hopefully get my PS back.

As I decelerate through 30 mph the PS comes back. Hmm. I step gently on the gas and accelerate away.

At about 40 mph I decide to see if I can consistently reproduce the problem. So I stomp on the gas, the transmission kicks down and I lose my power steering again.

This time I decelerate slowly, trying to find when it kicks beck in. At precisely 30 mph the PS came back.

Now I'm wondering if its the speed or the kick down that it is causing it. So I gradually accelerate to 70 mph, faster than I've gone so far and no problem. I slow back down to 50 and floor it and the PS fails again.

So now I know that flooring it causes the problem. I wanted to try one more thing and put it into manual 3rd gear at 6000 rpm. I floored it (with no kick down) and the PS functioned fine. Then I put it in D and it shifted to 7th gear. When I floored it again it kicked down and the PS failed. I gradually slowed and it came back at 30 mph.

Hmm. So now I pretty much know that flooring it with it kicking down causes the PS to turn off and slowing to 30 mph brings it back.

I then pulled over to the side of the road and shut the truck off for 30 sec and restarted it. I tried to reproduce the problem and could not.

Thoughts?

Don

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I haven't tracked this like I normally do -is this limited to 2021 and 2022 models? I've never had any such troubles with mine and it's been romped many times..........

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