[Paula2012]

I’m having the same problem with my 2009 Malibu. Not even a month after buying it. What could it be?

It’s the Torque sensor assembly, it’s under the steering wheel, I took my car to Chevy a month ago and it was $670 total to fix, also it was a major recall my vin number just wasn’t in it, go figure, so I had to pay for my own repair, beware driving it, At first we could get ours to start working by shutting the car off and turning it back on and waiting a minute but then the steering started going out while we were driving, that’s when I got it into my Chevy dealer shop. Good luck

 

[gr8shot]

Funny this should pop up. I was at the dealership, was going to have them to the sensor for my steering... for the second time. They did it three years ago, I had bought the part to do it myself, and ended up not having the time to do it. So I paid them to install it, they charged me 1.5 hours of labor, which was $200.

I called to make the appointment and the new service manager refused to change the part without first doing diagnosis. So I said ok. He came back after 20 minutes with a bill for an hour of diagnostics, and 2.9 hours to change the sensor. Total bill was going to be $809!!!! I inquired as to why it was going to take an extra hour and a half to change the same sensor that took 1.5 hours last time. He went and reworked the bill and it was still $680!! So I declined, and decided I'm going to try my local shop and see if they'll do it for me, or maybe I'll just buy the sensor online and do it myself. I was pretty pissed, and let the new service manager know that he's very obviously gouging me and that it's not appreciated. He even went back through the records and saw the previous repair and how much was charged. jerk.

So one way or another, hopefully I'll be getting it repaired again soon, I'm getting tired of strong arming it everywhere I go.

 

[Paula2012]

Funny this should pop up. I was at the dealership, was going to have them to the sensor for my steering... for the second time. They did it three years ago, I had bought the part to do it myself, and ended up not having the time to do it. So I paid them to install it, they charged me 1.5 hours of labor, which was $200.

I called to make the appointment and the new service manager refused to change the part without first doing diagnosis. So I said ok. He came back after 20 minutes with a bill for an hour of diagnostics, and 2.9 hours to change the sensor. Total bill was going to be $809!!!! I inquired as to why it was going to take an extra hour and a half to change the same sensor that took 1.5 hours last time. He went and reworked the bill and it was still $680!! So I declined, and decided I'm going to try my local shop and see if they'll do it for me, or maybe I'll just buy the sensor online and do it myself. I was pretty pissed, and let the new service manager know that he's very obviously gouging me and that it's not appreciated. He even went back through the records and saw the previous repair and how much was charged. jerk.

So one way or another, hopefully I'll be getting it repaired again soon, I'm getting tired of strong arming it everywhere I go.

Have you checked you VIN to see if it was in the recall? Heritage Chevy in Battle Creek Mi fixed mine not even a month ago for $670 and that included the part, I don’t understand why they would try to charge you more. Kbb.com you can run your vin

 

[repairman54]

Extended warranty coverage is 10 years or 150,000 miles which ever comes first from day car was originally delivered and put into service.

 

[gr8shot]

Have you checked you VIN to see if it was in the recall? Heritage Chevy in Battle Creek Mi fixed mine not even a month ago for $670 and that included the part, I don’t understand why they would try to charge you more. Kbb.com you can run your vin

I'm out of the recall by year alone. Not to mention I've got 318,xxx miles on it lol. At this point that repair bill is about as much as the car's worth! Although I am going to get it fixed, and continue driving it til the wheels fall off since it's in plenty good shape still other than a bit of rust.

 

[JackD]

My mother-in-laws car (2011 LS) just had this issue pop up, she cant drive anymore and the car has been sitting for 6months. I went over yesterday and put a new battery in it and as I was pulling out of the driveway noticed the power steering was nonexistent and the ecs service notification and ecs light were on. I cant imagine the car is worth what I'm seeing ppl say the fix costs, not sure what I can do at this point.

 

[DrivenDaily]

My mother-in-laws car (2011 LS) just had this issue pop up, she cant drive anymore and the car has been sitting for 6months. I went over yesterday and put a new battery in it and as I was pulling out of the driveway noticed the power steering was nonexistent and the ecs service notification and ecs light were on. I cant imagine the car is worth what I'm seeing ppl say the fix costs, not sure what I can do at this point.

Step 1: Get all of the codes read, not just the P codes. There are B, C, and U codes as well.

 

[repairman54]

If the mileage is not too high and the cars in decent shape then $800 repair for a free car is a deal in my view.
Anything not beat up and can pass inspection is worth at least $1500 in my book.

 

[gr8shot]

To be honest, yeah these are cheap cars, and they lose their book value really quickly. But I'm honestly amazed at how well mine has held up. At 323k miles now and everything still works for the most part. Original transmission is still hanging on, all of the original engine accessories are still kicking, heat and ac work great, cruise works, really the only thing that doesn't work anymore are a few of the door lock actuators. To me, that makes it worth spending the money on the repair since even with a ton of miles, the car is still running and driving great, and still works like it should overall. I just dropped $750 on new tires a couple weeks ago, so I'm keeping it for at least another 80k miles now til I wear out this set!

 

[repairman54]

I'd change the latch assy's before you have to fight to open the doors. They can be had for cheap like $40 on RA .

 

[gr8shot]

I'd change the latch assy's before you have to fight to open the doors. They can be had for cheap like $40 on RA .

Eh, I just don't lock the doors. Nobody has any interest in stealing it, there's nothing of any value in it, and honestly, I'd get more from the insurance than its worth if someone did steal it! haha

 

[GlockGirl66]

Bought a 2009 Malibu (2.4 engine with electric power steering) a few weeks ago. Pulled into my driveway today and the power steering goes out and the traction control light comes on and service ESC message comes across the message center. Turn the car off and back on and the light goes out, power steering comes back for a second then the light trips again and it's out again as soon as I turn the wheel.

After looking it seems to be a problem that is not uncommon. Reading that the steering column may need to be replaced for the torque sensor.

I checked and my car is not on the recall list for this issue.

Has anyone done this job themselves?

I think in 3 weeks of owning this car I've had every known tough issue pop up... Headlight goes out and I have to spend an hour in 19 degree weather taking half the bumper off to change a bulb.

Then my wiper linkage breaks on the highway in a snow storm because of a plastic bushing... GM won't sell me the 30 cent replacment bushing and wanted to charge me 140 bucks... So I had to order it from Amazon and drive three days with no wipers...

All but one of the door locks stops working... The front passenger side door actually locked shut with no way to open the door so I had to pull the door card off from the inside and pop the lock... What a nightmare...

Ugh....if this is one of those issues where I need the 2000 dollar diagnostic tool instead of my scan tool to calibrate I'll drive it without power steering before I pay a dealer a dime to fix it. Sorry to vent, but this car is giving me a headache... Runs great otherwise!

This car is actually on the recall list for this.

 

[Zeal2sim]

Please can you help me with the pdf [email protected]

 

[nick_rt11]

Bought a 2009 Malibu (2.4 engine with electric power steering) a few weeks ago. Pulled into my driveway today and the power steering goes out and the traction control light comes on and service ESC message comes across the message center. Turn the car off and back on and the light goes out, power steering comes back for a second then the light trips again and it's out again as soon as I turn the wheel.

After looking it seems to be a problem that is not uncommon. Reading that the steering column may need to be replaced for the torque sensor.

I checked and my car is not on the recall list for this issue.

Has anyone done this job themselves?

I think in 3 weeks of owning this car I've had every known tough issue pop up... Headlight goes out and I have to spend an hour in 19 degree weather taking half the bumper off to change a bulb.

Then my wiper linkage breaks on the highway in a snow storm because of a plastic bushing... GM won't sell me the 30 cent replacment bushing and wanted to charge me 140 bucks... So I had to order it from Amazon and drive three days with no wipers...

All but one of the door locks stops working... The front passenger side door actually locked shut with no way to open the door so I had to pull the door card off from the inside and pop the lock... What a nightmare...

Ugh....if this is one of those issues where I need the 2000 dollar diagnostic tool instead of my scan tool to calibrate I'll drive it without power steering before I pay a dealer a dime to fix it. Sorry to vent, but this car is giving me a headache... Runs great otherwise!

I just started having the same damn issue with the power steering and traction control. What did you end up doing to solve this problem? I saw videos where just replacing the battery solved the issue. I’ll probably start with that route before I even decide to change the motor. Just wondered what you’d suggest

 

[repairman54]

I just started having the same damn issue with the power steering and traction control. What did you end up doing to solve this problem? I saw videos where just replacing the battery solved the issue. I’ll probably start with that route before I even decide to change the motor. Just wondered what you’d suggest

Getting battery checked to see if it's good is step one along with its connectors being good.
Code scan is next to see what codes are stored in system.
It's not the steering motor that goes bad it's the steering SENSOR in the steering column that usually goes bad.

 

[YTEE]

I just started having the same damn issue with the power steering and traction control. What did you end up doing to solve this problem? I saw videos where just replacing the battery solved the issue. I’ll probably start with that route before I even decide to change the motor. Just wondered what you’d suggest

Hope you got it fixed, but I did a YouTube search and a couple of guys said to pull the 3 connectors on the motor (there are blue clips on the two smaller connectors that you need to pop out before you can get them to come off and the larger, white one is just a latch you can see fairly easy, press it in and up and the connector should come out. Once you get them off, clean them with electrical contact cleaner (both the male and female portions, then fill (yeah I mean FILL) them with dielectric grease and put 'em back together. This issue came up last wkend when the temp dipped to about 10F and it was snowing, I don't know about the snow, but I think the connectors shrunk in the cold (I WAS IN THE POOL!) and would intermittently lose connection. I did this is 15 minutes in a snowy parking lot on my my daughter's car and we went from starting the car and having the issue to no issue in a couple hundred miles now...toes and fingers are crossed!

 

[Texminn8587]

So I've been having this issue since I moved from Texas to Minnesota, during the summer I'll have no issue with the power steering, but once it hits the sub-zero temps, like this weekend with the high not getting above -8, the power steering turns off.

 

[DrivenDaily]

So I've been having this issue since I moved from Texas to Minnesota, during the summer I'll have no issue with the power steering, but once it hits the sub-zero temps, like this weekend with the high not getting above -8, the power steering turns off.

Please read this post and share more info.

 

[cjzforce]

So I've been having this issue since I moved from Texas to Minnesota, during the summer I'll have no issue with the power steering, but once it hits the sub-zero temps, like this weekend with the high not getting above -8, the power steering turns off.

Based on what I have found the recall does not have a limit. It is a safety recall and is to be repaired regardless of the how old or how many miles. Here is a link to the recall bulletin. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2014/RCRIT-14V153-8725.pdf

And here is the paragraph that states there is no mileage or age limit.

"DEALER RECALL RESPONSIBILITY – All All unsold new vehicles in dealers' possession and subject to this recall must be held and inspected/repaired per the service procedure of this recall bulletin before customers take possession of these vehicles. Dealers are to service all vehicles subject to this recall at no charge to customers, regardless of mileage, age of vehicle, or ownership, from this time forward."

 

[DrivenDaily]

Based on what I have found the recall does not have a limit. It is a safety recall and is to be repaired regardless of the how old or how many miles. Here is a link to the recall bulletin. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2014/RCRIT-14V153-8725.pdf

And here is the paragraph that states there is no mileage or age limit.

"DEALER RECALL RESPONSIBILITY – All All unsold new vehicles in dealers' possession and subject to this recall must be held and inspected/repaired per the service procedure of this recall bulletin before customers take possession of these vehicles. Dealers are to service all vehicles subject to this recall at no charge to customers, regardless of mileage, age of vehicle, or ownership, from this time forward."

Notice the bold text. The vehicles must be in the possession of the dealer, and they must be new and unsold. I kinda doubt that there are any in that particular condition at this time.

Maybe what should be said is that there is a recall dated October 2014, and that they should call a dealer and ask if it still applies.

Please be more careful when providing guidance or opinions that are as important as this.