Help! Is There A Tsb On...?

[woaface]

Steering systems (any part) in the 1999 Grand Marquis? It failed on me a few times in parking lots at low speeds locking up and today went completely limp on me causing me to spin out and hit a guard rail. A thread on the story will come later...but if the dealership failed to tell me of a TSB on the car after I already had it in for troubles...I will not be happy...were it not for a turn lane (leaving traffic on the far right of the road) this would have been much more serious.

[jgc61sr2002]

Steering systems (any part) in the 1999 Grand Marquis? It failed on me a few times in parking lots at low speeds locking up and today went completely limp on me causing me to spin out and hit a guard rail. A thread on the story will come later...but if the dealership failed to tell me of a TSB on the car after I already had it in for troubles...I will not be happy...were it not for a turn lane (leaving traffic on the far right of the road) this would have been much more serious.


James - Glad to hear that no one was injured.

[woaface]

Yes, that too!

[Patrick]

Steering systems (any part) in the 1999 Grand Marquis? It failed on me a few times in parking lots at low speeds locking up and today went completely limp on me causing me to spin out and hit a guard rail. A thread on the story will come later...but if the dealership failed to tell me of a TSB on the car after I already had it in for troubles...I will not be happy...were it not for a turn lane (leaving traffic on the far right of the road) this would have been much more serious.

Glad your OK! But TSB? I hope someone here can help!

[martyo]

Steering systems (any part) in the 1999 Grand Marquis? It failed on me a few times in parking lots at low speeds locking up and today went completely limp on me causing me to spin out and hit a guard rail. A thread on the story will come later...but if the dealership failed to tell me of a TSB on the car after I already had it in for troubles...I will not be happy...were it not for a turn lane (leaving traffic on the far right of the road) this would have been much more serious.


Is Elaine okay?????????

[woaface]

I'll let you know if she strokes or has a heart-attack when I tell her tomorrow.

[MENINBLK]

Steering systems (any part) in the 1999 Grand Marquis? It failed on me a few times in parking lots at low speeds locking up and today went completely limp on me causing me to spin out and hit a guard rail. A thread on the story will come later...but if the dealership failed to tell me of a TSB on the car after I already had it in for troubles...I will not be happy...were it not for a turn lane (leaving traffic on the far right of the road) this would have been much more serious.

You can always check on the NHTSA website...

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

They list recalls and serious TSBs...

[martyo]

I'll let you know if she strokes or has a heart-attack when I tell her tomorrow.

Let her now Todd is very, very concerned.

[jefferson-mo]

I'll have a look and see what I can find.............you say you had it in before....what did they do?

[jefferson-mo]

Well James I didn't find any TSBs for steering on a 99 GM. The Panther platform is a pretty good one and we don't sell a lot of steering or suspension parts for those(even though ALL of our police cars are Crown Vics), except wear items.

about the only thing I can think of is maybe the pitman arm is siezeing but it would make a VERy loud creaking sound way before that would happen.

the only other thing(or things) that it could be is bad gear, bad p/s pump or slipping belt(more loud sounds)............

[MENINBLK]

Well James I didn't find any TSBs for steering on a 99 GM. The Panther platform is a pretty good one and we don't sell a lot of steering or suspension parts for those(even though ALL of our police cars are Crown Vics), except wear items.

about the only thing I can think of is maybe the pitman arm is siezeing but it would make a VERy loud creaking sound way before that would happen.

the only other thing(or things) that it could be is bad gear, bad p/s pump or slipping belt(more loud sounds)............

Or a sudden loss of Power Steering Oil ???

[Patrick]

You can always check on the NHTSA website...

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

They list recalls and serious TSBs...

Thanks for the web page. Nice info!!

[woaface]

With the wheel turned all the way either left or right and the car in motion, it would make a very loud creaking noise if I were to say, go over a man hole cover or something while I was turning.

This was more like, as I was starting to slide, I edged the steering wheel to the right just a tiny tiny bit, and the whole thing went limp, the tires went full right, and the car spun. Had I let it go I could have done a full 360º but I started gaining control again about half way through and the car then began to slide straight...right into a guard rail.

[RoyLPita]

Outer tie rod ends are the culrpit for sqeaking and possibly grabbing.

Just my .02 and them some....

[woaface]

Hey Roy who's name isn't Roy...have you ever experienced anything like this with your GM? The steering wheel going numb when the car is sliding and then suddenly the whole car lurching the other way in a spin?

[mtnh]

James, it sounds like you broke a tie rod end or ball joint. Your front end gave out, if the wheel moved to full lock without the steering putting it there.
Are the two front wheels still parallel? Was the car driveable afterward? From your description, that wouldn't seem to be the case.

Edit: I re-read all of your posts on this, and it sounds like your steering geometry is still intact. If this is the case, then I would suspect the variable assist power steering electromechanicals. If your car has it. I think that it does.

On the full-lock turns with noises resulting when going over road irregularities, that is the steering stop castings meeting together on the steering knuckle area. Some grease needs to be kept there to keep the parts quiet when the metal meets metal to prevent further steering movement. I found that grease only lasted a month or two on my old '96 GM.


Mike

[jefferson-mo]

Hey Roy who's name isn't Roy...have you ever experienced anything like this with your GM? The steering wheel going numb when the car is sliding and then suddenly the whole car lurching the other way in a spin?


I'm sorry James but why is the car sliding? :confused:

[RoyLPita]

Hey Roy who's name isn't Roy...have you ever experienced anything like this with your GM? The steering wheel going numb when the car is sliding and then suddenly the whole car lurching the other way in a spin?

James,
I haven't with my own '92 because I had play and needed to change them out. I did have a '99 GM in stock that had the sqeaky front end. I talked to a tech who said that they could also bind.

Just my .02 and then some.

[carfixer]

James,
As for the loss of power steering, haven't heard too much of that. If it fails when only turning to one direction, I would suspect a bad steering box. If it fails going left and right, I would lean more toward a power steering pump issue. If the variable assist fails on that particular car, it defaults to full assist, so I would almost rule that out. And besides, it wouldn't cut the P/S out to the point of no assist.

The pitman arm and idler arms have a pretty short life on older panthers. Be sure have them checked too.