Steering Rack And Pinion Problems of Buick Enclave - part 2

I bought my Enclave brand new. I now have 73000 miles on it. We took the car in because it was becoming very hard for me to turn the wheel and I could have been in an accident because of this. The dealership told us that the power steering pump and the power steering rack & pinion had to be replaced! what??!! I had never heard of anyone that I know of having this kind of major issue with their car at 73000 miles. We did some research and found that there have been several other Buick owners with this same issue with fewer miles on their car. This is a safety issue that Buick needs to research and resolve. My other safety problem is the power liftgate. If your car is parked on a hill, the power liftgate will drop on top of you with no warning. The liftgate struts dont work when your car is parked on a slope.

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The contact owns a 2008 Buick Enclave. The contact stated that while turning the steering wheel, a loud sound was heard from the steering column. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the technician diagnosed that the rack and pinion was deteriorating. No repairs were performed on the vehicle. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 45,000 and the current mileage was 55,000.

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Rack and pinion needed to be replaced control arm needed to be replaced steering bushing needed to be replaced.

See all problems of the 2010 Buick Enclave 🔎.

Power steering would grind, occurred for over 20,000 miles, and dealer could not diagnose the problem on several instances of being in for maintenance. Steering would be sluggish at times but not easily reproduced for dealer service. Independent shop found massive leakage in the rack and pinion system on both sides as well as complete leakage from the rear differential. Independent shop indicated both were significant safety issues requiring immediate repair; they also were surprised at the dealer's inability to diagnose the issue.

My power steering, in my 2009 Buick Enclave, has caused me problems for almost two years. The power steering has made weird (and loud) noises, when doing slow speed turns. There always seemed to be resistance when turns are made (especially if a slow, sharp turn is needed), above the norm. Finally, today, the entire power steering/rack pinion drive went out. I almost got into an accident, when trying to turn left out of an intersection today. It now requires a huge effort to turn the wheel and the car is not safe to drive.

I was slowing down to make a right turn into my parents drive when the power steering failed (felt like it was locking up). At the time I was pulling a small trailer so I had to pass up the driveway to keep from getting into an accident. I turned around again and everything seemed fine. Later that day it happened again and then it was 6 weeks before it happened again. I called my service advisor who said there may be air in the line. I had just serviced my car. The symptoms continued off and on for several months off and on. . . And I finally had the rack and pinion replaced on June 14, 2012 as well as the power steering pump. I am very concerned there may be other similar vehicles with similar issues that may cause a serious or even fatal accident.