Steering Rack And Pinion problems of the 2001 Saturn LS

While driving home my car just stopped in the middle of the road. I had no idea what happened or what was wrong, it just stopped with no warning, right before it stopped it made a noise unfamiliar to me but it sounded as if the brakes had fallen off or something. I had to get my car towed at my own cost. I found a mechanic that would come out and take a look at it because I had it towed to my house. Apparently my timing chain was to loose and kept hitting something else and over time the chain broke and what it was hitting was damaged so I had to replace both and because the engine had to be dropped to get to replace, it cost me $1800. 00 out my pocket also they informed me that the rack and pinion will have to be done also. If this is a recall issue I would like to be reimbursed for the cost. Thanks.

I purchased this 2001 Saturn Ls 4 cylinder sedan off-lease car from my local Saturn dealer in July of 2004 with approximately 21,000 miles on the car. I found out after the purchase that it received a new rack and pinion, new front brakes and new front tires after purchasing the car. This car has now had three rack and pinions fail and the fourth on has just been installed. The car has 76,000 miles on at this time and the 55,000 miles I have put on it in less than two years have been primarily highway miles. I am now thinking about contacting gm corporate directly. This is getting costly and ridiculous!.

While under warrenty my Saturn l200 had "growlilng noise:"while steering, Saturn fixed power steering. Approx 18mo later growling noise returned and was diagnosed as rack and pinion steering failure, not covered, cost $1400. Car had only 50000miles on at the time of steering failure.

Grinding noise when turning left or right. 'sounds' like it comes from tire area. Independent mechanic states that strut is leaking & car requires new rack & pinion steering at 41k miles. Problem is continuous.