1996 Chevrolet Astro suspension problems

Filed May 7, 2010 · Suspension · UT

1996 chevy astro lf torsion bar broke. Luckily it happened after my wife went on an 800 mile trip. Dealer replaced with newly designed shorter bar. Front now a lot lower than original. Dealer did not require or insist the other one be fixed at this time. They adjusted the camber of the wheel to offset the lower lf of the car. After reading other complaints on this board it was clearly a design flaw and should be remedied by gm. They knew--or at least found out about it--otherwise they would not have redesigned the part. They should pay for replacements on both sides. What does it take?

Filed Jun 20, 2005 · Suspension · 71,000 miles · OH

The torsion bar snapped in half. This bar was inadequate to the vehicle, and gm has a modified version for this. The bar broke while the consumer was driving the vehicle. The consumer was going 10 MPH, when this happened and this caused the left front to drop down about 8 to 10 inches and was a violent drop. There were no problems before this. There were no wrecks involved. The consumer had to take in to the midas dealer and have the torsion bars on the left and right replaced with the new modified version. The front shock also broke, as a result of the bar breaking. The total of fixing this was $1,000.00 at the consumer's expense. *tt *sc

Filed Aug 6, 2004 · Suspension · 80,222 miles · MO

Part#15990701 failed,broke.causing left corner of vechicleto droop almost to interfering with left front wheel.this part is comminly known as a torsion bar and should not be failing/.there was no accident.this vech.is in excellent condition and has never been abused.reparing this is going to be costly;over 1000.00 dollars.because their are no original parts.the parts have been updated and all new parts for both sides of the vech. Must be used.this tells me their was bad engineering in the original design. Now that they've fixed the problem they want the customer to pay the bill. Thank you. Respectfully richard wagner.

Filed Jan 15, 2004 · Suspension · 00 · crash

I would like to report what I feel is/was a very serious safety defect with my 1996 chevrolet all wheel drive astro van [xxx]. Recently while driving the right front suspension torsion bar snapped, collapsing the suspension, dropping the entire right side on top of the right front wheel and tire pulling drastically to the right across 2 lanes of traffic. Fortunately traffic was light, and I was traveling at a slow speed -about 40 km/hr in a posted 50km zone as I had just entered the 4-lane roadway. I managed to regain control of the van and steer it to the side of the right hand side of the road. I shudder at the thought if this had happened on the highway or freeway. The licensed journeyman mechanic that looked at the van indicated this was quite common on 90-96 all wheel drive vans stating that the torsion bar actually rusts or corrodes at almost the exact same spot (near the adjuster assembly) and eventually snaps completely breaking the torsion bar into 2 pieces! While he mentioned it was usually the driver's side (mine was passenger side) he indicated gm had recognized the problem and actually completely changed the design of both the torsion bar and the adjuster mechanism! However after contacting a couple of local gm dealers, they all told me was that this was not a product service bulletin related item or an official safety recall! Yet they all had heard of it and just happened to have all of the parts in stock to the tune of $1000 (you have to replace both sides with the redesigned items). I found it surprising that they just happened to have 6 torsion bars and 6 adjusters in-stock; when I recently had to special order the rear door handle that had broken. I was told they only stock commonly replaced items at that time. The fact that it was redesigned tells me something. A component that is subject to wear should have some sort of published inspection process, wear measurement procedure or even a regularly scheduled replacement interval. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of informati

Filed Jan 15, 2004 · Engine, Fuel system · 65,000 miles · CO

Filed Jan 15, 2004 · Suspension · 92,000 miles · NJ

Torsion bar broke, dealer claims that it was a defect in the design of the torsion bar, the bar was to long. Now they have a shorter bar. I had to replace both sides with the new design because the original part was discontinued.

Filed Nov 11, 2003 · Suspension · 83,000 miles · IA

My wife went to move our 1996 chevrolet astro van and when she backed up the right front tire was rubbing on the wheel well. Upon further investigation it was determined that one of the torsion bars broke. *ak when I called my local dealer I found the parts were readily available but I would have to replace both sides because they had been "updated". The parts alone were over $500.00. When I removed the old torsion bars I found out what had caused it to break, the receiver tube that the end of the bar went into had filled with dirt and road crude causing the bar to rust and eventully break. This occured four days before we were leaving on a 2500 mile trip. If this had occured when we were going down the interstate at 75mph or in the mountains while on vacation it could have been diasaterous. My last complaint is that I was required to replace both torsion bars because the new one would not match the old. You should not have to replace something that is not broken and if they do require you to do so the manufacturer is admitting there is a problem with the old design. I checked in your records and found that the astro and safari vans built from 1992-1996 had almost 200 cases of these torsion bars breaking and a complaint being filed. Who knows how many other ones have broken and gone unreported.the 1997 models did not seem to have a problem because they came out with the updated parts.

Filed Aug 25, 2003 · Suspension · 127,261 miles · MA

Fracture of right side torsion bar caused body to drop onto wheel, immobilizing vehicle. Repairs cost $797.12 plus $40 towing and loss of use for three days.

Filed Aug 2, 2003 · Suspension · NY

Driver's side torsion bar broke. I've seen numerous complaints of this same failure on various web sites. Fortunately, my torsion bar broke while backing out of our driveway. This could have been a catastrophic failure had it occured while driving on the freeway.

Filed May 12, 2003 · Suspension · WI

While driving, the torsion bar broke (which was the second time the incident happened) dealer and manufacturer were notified.