2010 Chevrolet Camaro: loss of power steering

Filed Aug 3, 2022 · Engine · OR

My name is Kenneth Brown 'Kenny', and I purchased my 2010 Chevy Camaro 1LT 3.6L V6 from Ron Tonkin Chevrolet here in Portland, Oregon right off of their lot brand new. Now on the the bigger issue that has never been addressed to this day...the faulty 3.6L V6 motor. If you were to look at the wrecking yards across the country, you will find many 2010 & some early 2011 Camaro's with dead motors well before 75k miles, because my motor went out at 69K miles in 2017. McLaughlin Chevrolet the Dealership that replaced my motor stated that "They don't replace motors with only 69k miles on them", but they did, and that wouldn't be the last motor replacement they would do on the same car! Two weeks before the warranty expired on the replacement motor in September 2020 with 102,233 miles, McLaughlin Chevrolet replaced the GM vendor replacement motor with what is currently in my car. So is it normal to have had (3) OEM GM motors in one car with just 102k miles? There is a more serious/dangerous underlining issue here that GM, or anyone will acknowledge, and that is, just before the two previous motors went out, there was this engine warning light that has popped up each time, and that was the "Engine Power is Reduced". And where the safety concern lies is when this engine warning light comes on, it reduces your engine power almost down to a complete stop. How wonderful it is when your in heave traffic doing 45mph to 50mph and you loose engine power in heavy traffic! Now GM has attributed the engine warning light to a Timing belt issue, and this has been an issue since 2010. When this warning light comes on, not only is the engine power reduced, the bigger issue is that the power steering is reduced drastically. If you are not a seasoned driver that has driven a vehicle that has no power steering in it, then it becomes a serious issue...RIGHT, especially when your in heave traffic doing 45 to 50mph, because it put me right into the retaining cement barrier on the highway

Filed Sep 6, 2018 · Electrical, Engine · 31,132 miles · UT · fire

While driving my 2010 chevy camaro ss on the interstate home from work all of a sudden I lost power all my interior lights and dashboard warning lights started to flash on and off car would surge then lose power than surge lose power steering was very difficult had no brakes merged over to the shoulder to try to get into a safe position and was calling nine-one-one when I noticed smoke coming out of the left front compartment of the camaro under the hood and then the smoke turn to a rust burnt looking color and then noticed that the hood was starting to banned from the heat underneath it and at this time I tried to get out of the vehicle but the electrical system was burnt and had to use a pair of pliers to open up the door lock because my interior door locks would not function got out of the car called nine-one-one and within 5 minutes there was flames coming up from underneath the hood the hood kind of popped open and flames took over the whole front of the car and the engine compartment fire truck of course got the fire out but the car was a total loss

Filed Jun 1, 2018 · Engine · 51,000 miles · TN

The gm 6.2l ls engine has a serious defect with the valve train that causes the engine to drop valves into the cylinder, and lock up the engine while driving. The fuel management system that makes the engine operate on less cylinders while at cruising speeds, causes the lifters to stick. This results in excessive clearance between the valve and rocker arm, and the beating action knocks the keepers out. When this happens, the valve drops into the cylinder, and the engine locks up. This primarily happens while driving at highway speeds, which results in loss of steering, loss of brakes, and in cases like mine with a manual transmission, when the engine locks up, the rear wheels also lock up, and the vehicle slides out of control. This happened, it was raining, on a straight stretch of divided 4 lane, at 55mph, which caused the vehicle to slide off the road, and only because it was on a saturday morning and there was very limited traffic, we were not injured or killed. I special ordered this vehicle from gm, it was serviced only at the dealership it was purchased, and was treated with extreme care from day one. Being that the warranty had expired, the dealership made an estimate that it will take $8,200 to replace the engine, and it only had 51,000 miles at the time. After this happened to mine, I have found that this situation is a very common occurrence with the 6.2l ls engines. Gm has done nothing but turn their backs to millions of customers who are driving a vehicle that can lose steering, brakes, and control of the vehicle, at anytime while driving at speeds of 60+MPH. This is a major safety issue to not just the people driving these vehicles, but anyone who is driving near one of these vehicles when this occurs. Gm needs to be accountable for the safety of their customers, and the general public.

Filed May 3, 2015 · Electrical · 48,000 miles · GA

Due to a structural defect of the car , water accumulated and the electrical system failed completely. The dealership identified that there was a structural defect related to the sunroof . The car completely lost all power since the electrical system failed . Therefore there was no power steering , and I was unable to exit the car since all power failed . This was an immediate life threatening danger . The dealership " repaired " the problem after an extensive assessment which included correspondence with general motors . The cost of the repair was $1200 . My concern is that this may be a life threatening safety hazard in other vehicles of the same make and model . I would also like to be reimbursed the full amount of this repair since this was a manufacturer defect . The outcome of this could have been catastrophic . Please advise me on how I would implement the process of reimbursement .

Filed Feb 3, 2015 · Acceleration, Brakes · 46,000 miles · NC · crash · 1 injury

I was going for a drive in my neighborhood. I was driving down a hill when the accelerator stuck. At the bottom of the hill was a bump in the road. After hitting the bump the engine turned off. I had no brakes and no steering. I then skid off the road into a tree. There was one injury, a lady in the back seat passenger side hit her head on the back of the front seat passenger. She had a huge goose egg on top of her head and a black eye.

Filed Nov 14, 2014 · Transmission · 87,000 miles · AR

2010 camaro rs, v6 manual transmission: passed a car and tried to shift down but the clutch would not shift the car down to 5th. Tried clutch again and all it would do was move around and never catch. Same with the stick shift. It would not go into any speed. It was like the clutch, would move around from 1st - 6th like this was a toy I was trying to shift. Also, I could not brake the car with the regular brake or emergency brake. While this was going on my car was increasing in speed and the motor revved to the point I thought was going to explode. The only way I could stop it was to turn the car off. When I did this l lost steering and headlights. Coasted to a stop finally. Had onstar run a diagnostic on all the car and they said everything was showing up ok. Talked to roadside and they said what I was describing was a burned clutch. The car smelled like it was on fire. Took it to a gm dealer and they said I needed a new clutch and flywheel for $2400. I have to pay big dollars for a repair that almost killed me, and now I find out this is a common problem. Come on gm you got lucky with me or you could of had another fatality.

Filed Jun 28, 2014 · Airbags, Steering · 51,200 miles · LA · crash · 1 injury

Chevrolet camaro 2010, driving on interstate vehicle steering became stiff (felt as if it locked up). Slid off interstate across two lanes off traffic into the crash barrier. $23,000 worth of damage. Total of course. Airbags did not deploy, onstar did not activate.

Filed Feb 1, 2014 · Steering · 62,400 miles · PA · 1 injury

I just bought a 2010 chevy camaro on december 30th from a certified pre-owned car dealer and within a month later the power-steering pump fails and I have no power steering. It was one of the coldest days in the single digits, it's been a very bad winter for the northeast part of the us. In less then an hour before this happened the car was driving normally from supermarket to pharmacy to the restaurant where I bought lunch, which are all in a 7/8 block radius from my home. When I got home I couldn't find a place to park near my house because there isn't a whole lot of parking spaces in south philadelphia where I live, plus there's a corner bar on the corner who's customers don't live around here, so I parked about a block away. Not even an hour later a spot opened up in front of my house so I decided to go and get my car which when I found out the power steering was gone I was trying to turn the corner and trying to park my car took a lot of pain-staking force to turn the steering wheel and that is when I wrenched my lower back out and I was in pain. I'm disabled because I was in a car accident back in 2006 when I was working for a limousine company. I have bad lower back injuries consisting of herniated, bulging and ruptured discs. I was trying to turn the steering wheel to park and I wrenched out my lower back so bad that I'm laid up in bed. After doing some research online it seems I'm not the only one who is going through this problem or who's been through this problem many times over with the same power steering problem. When it's bitterly cold out the power steering pump breaks. I don't know why this isn't a recall yet because it's a part not covered under the power train warranty or the 5 years or 100k miles which ever comes first. So now I can't drive this car in the cold weather and where I live gets cold in the winter. This should be a recall please.

Filed Dec 21, 2010 · Steering · 11,000 miles · TX

Tl*the contact owns 2010 chevrolet camaro. The contact stated that the power steering failed while she was driving approximately 20mph. The dealer stated that debris punctured the condenser which caused the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 11,000 and the current mileage was 11,200.

Filed Dec 16, 2010 · Steering · 20,000 miles · PA

Tl*the contact owns a 2010 chevrolet camaro. The contact stated that the power steering failed. When the contact took the vehicle to the dealer, they were told that a stone broke the condenser on the power steering module. The contact stated that it was a manufacturing defect, because if road hazards could destroy a part that easy then it should have a shield around it. The VIN was unknown. The failure and current mileages were 20000.