I have an '05 SL AWD w/VDC and experienced a rather disturbing steering problem this morning.
Was making a right turn at about 25-30 MPH in the snow, kind of trying to make the rear end slide a bit. There was nobody on the road and I wanted to test out the VDC.
I applied the brakes, got midway into the turn and boom the steering tightened up. I wasn't on the gas at all and the car just wanted to go straight. My immediate reaction was: ok something's wrong , there's nobody around so just brake and come to a stop.
I decided to "abort" since it was early (there was no traffic on the road) and the stiff steering made me think twice about what might be wrong.
I rolled to a stop in a snow bank on the opposite side of the street and then backed up and proceeded as normal. No unusual behavior afterwards. I even took the car into a big empty parking lot and tested some turns and skids. It performed as expected. The only difference I can think of is that I was gassing it through the turns during my tests.
This sounds a lot like the steering defect that has been discussed here before and in Consumer Reports. Anybody else experience something like this? I thought it was fixed in the 2005 model year.
thanks
Charles
Was making a right turn at about 25-30 MPH in the snow, kind of trying to make the rear end slide a bit. There was nobody on the road and I wanted to test out the VDC.
I applied the brakes, got midway into the turn and boom the steering tightened up. I wasn't on the gas at all and the car just wanted to go straight. My immediate reaction was: ok something's wrong , there's nobody around so just brake and come to a stop.
I decided to "abort" since it was early (there was no traffic on the road) and the stiff steering made me think twice about what might be wrong.
I rolled to a stop in a snow bank on the opposite side of the street and then backed up and proceeded as normal. No unusual behavior afterwards. I even took the car into a big empty parking lot and tested some turns and skids. It performed as expected. The only difference I can think of is that I was gassing it through the turns during my tests.
This sounds a lot like the steering defect that has been discussed here before and in Consumer Reports. Anybody else experience something like this? I thought it was fixed in the 2005 model year.
thanks
Charles