Chevy Silverado Power Steering Problems. FIXED with $20 part!
South Main Auto had a Chevy Silverado in with power steering problems. The power steering assist would come and go, there were also trailer hitch problems. Unfortunately the owner had already been to a Chevrolet dealer hoping they could fix his Chevrolet Silverado power steering problems but the dealer wanted to charge him almost four thousand dollars to do so. The owner said “no thank you I’ll get a second opinion” whereby the Chevy dealer charged him five hundred dollars(!) for the diagnostic and restocking fees for the parts that they ordered.
And this is where South Main Auto come in.
South Main found that the Chevy dealer had, in their opinion, completely and utterly failed in their “diagnostic” of the Silverado’s power steering problem.
According to Eric (video below) the Chevy dealer had not even addressed the most basic and obvious problem that the Silverado was having, namely that there was a big voltage drop when a load was applied to the steering.
The entire problem came down to a corroded earth strap (on a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado!). The braided earth strap had dissolved in the New York salt meaning that the cable was no longer large enough to supply the power steering motor with the voltage and current it required.
The fix was to remove the factory earth strap and replace it with a generic earth strap. The reason the earth strap was not replaced with a factory earth strap was that the owner would more than likely experience the same steering problems in a few years time. The salt and the water get trapped in the metal braid and rot it out. South Main’s solution was to fit an insulated earth strap which would not be so prone to corrosion.
Refund from Chevy
At the end of the video South Main recommend the owner of the Silverado get a full refund from Chevrolet because the dealer’s diagnostic work did not meet even the most basic standards of fault finding. And having watched the video, I’d agree 100%. And I would not be surprised if there were a factory recall occurring in the near future to address this earth strap issue. Chevrolet Silverado power steering problems like this could sideline a truck and worse still, cost the owner thousands in unnecessary part replacements.
I have a 2019 Silverado that lost power steering. Watched your video and saw I had the exact same symptoms. Even the trailer break fault. Next day I looked at my body to frame ground and it was so rotten it broke into when I removed it. I fear the problems that will happen in the future. I live in a northern state and lots of salt used in the winter, this disintegrated the ground cable. Thank you so much for giving owners help with this poor design. I too Installed a shielded cable.