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Very Stiff Steering Wheel Issue

Discussion in 'Model S: Driving Dynamics' started by jellybeans, Jul 7, 2016.

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  1. jellybeans

    jellybeans Member

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    #1 jellybeans, Jul 7, 2016
    Hey All,

    A few weeks ago when I was pulling out of a Trader Joe's parking lot in a tight turn and my steering wheel locked up. The car was powered, everything was on except that the steering wheel was very stiff, as if powered steering turned off. Turning the wheel required a tremendous amount of force. I could not give it speed before turning since there was a wall in front of me. I noted the date time and recently put the car in with Tesla Service. They said they were unable to find anything wrong or anything significant in the logs during that period. I find this concerning since for all I know, it can happen when I'm barreling down the highway at 70 mph.

    I've search the forums and there have been one or two posts about stiff steering when on Sport mode. (I was on Sport mode.) But has anyone ever encountered a locked steering wheel like this? Any recommendations on what I should do to reproduce this? Tesla is basically saying that it's Fine because they can't reproduce it, which sounds like they don't know what's going on and they're giving up.

    Thoughts? Advice?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. cgiGuy

    cgiGuy Active Member

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    #2 cgiGuy, Jul 7, 2016
    The good thing is if it happens while you're going 70, it should be easy to steer.
     
  3. animorph

    animorph Active Member

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    #3 animorph, Jul 7, 2016
    It does sound like a loss of power steering. That happened to our son in a BMW on the freeway. Hard to steer, but not impossible.

    Did it start working OK after that? That's why the SvC can't find the problem?
     
  4. jellybeans

    jellybeans Member

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    #4 jellybeans, Jul 7, 2016
    Yes. I went to the big screen, under settings to do a shut-off, then turned the car back on. Yea, basically I restarted the car and it worked again after.
     
  5. sorka

    sorka Well-Known Member

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    #5 sorka, Jul 8, 2016
    Unless he's flying around a corner at that speed. I had my power steering fail on a 93 300ZX Twin Turbo driving over highway 17 from San Jose to Santa Cruz and I'll tell you that was bear to handle. Also, it failed suddenly causing the steering wheel to suddenly straighten out in a split second. I had to apply a ton of force to it to get it back into its radius + compensation for almost drifting into the center divider. I was in the right lane sweeping right and the suddenly less caused me to shoot into the left lane and almost hit the center divider. Had there been a car next to me, I would have hit it.
     
  6. Tribaltech

    Tribaltech Member

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    #6 Tribaltech, Dec 19, 2016
    Hi, I just wanted to add that I saw a very famous YouTube/Tech celebrities post a video about this exact issue. Tesla should be ashamed of itself for treating their car manufacturing as basically a beta testing program.

     
  7. Barry

    Barry Active Member

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    #7 Barry, Dec 20, 2016
    Should I know who that guy is?
     
  8. Tribaltech

    Tribaltech Member

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    #8 Tribaltech, Dec 20, 2016
    He's a Tech reviewer whose name is Marques Brownlee. He goes by the name MKBHD. Check out his latest Tesla P100D video.
     
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