As I was driving I saw smoke come from the steering column of my truck. Then again as I turned the key in the ignition I saw smoke coming from the steering column.
2006 Pontiac Torrent steering complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 29 of 29, newest first, as owners wrote them.
My steering wheel locks up while driving, either when I'm making an attempt to turn or when I first turn on the car and go in reverse and turn the wheel and it locks up causing the inability to steer the car. This is not the first time this has happened, but the most recent. This has been happening as far back as 2009. It comes and goes. I took it to a gm dealership and paid $1,800 to replace the steering column in march 2014 and it just happened again. This is very dangerous and unfortunately I will have to get another car because it's not safe.
While stopped at a stop light notice smoke coming from vehicle steering column. Smoked stooped while driving but occurred again as I inspected while being parked. Stopped after turning off ignition.
When stopping vehicle and attempting to exit, the key gets stuck in ignition after turning vehicle off. I have to wiggle key in order to release from ignition. Turning steering wheel does nothing to help the situation. I am worried about possibly breaking key while trying to release it.
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 pontiac torrent. The contact stated while driving approximately 45 MPH, the steering wheel became inoperable. The vehicle was inspected by an authorized dealer; who advised that the power steering module and control module would need replacing. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer, who replaced the ignition lock cylinder, key and recoded the lock cylinder. After the repairs to the ignition, the key would not immediately start the vehicle. This failure was recurring. The dealer then advised the contact to replace the steering column modular assembly. The vehicle was not further repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 78,000.
Driving approx. 45 MPH down 4 lane highway in the left lane. Engine stopped and lost all steering & braking control. Able to coast to a ditch on side of the road. Turned the vehicle to off position in ignition switch then attempted to restart vehicle. After 3-4 cranking attempts, car started. Went straight to nearest dealership. Service department stated that there was nothing wrong because the check engine light was not on. Second occasion- driving approx. 25 MPH down 2 lane road. Began to slow down to turn left- engine stopped and lost all steering & braking control. Able to coast to side of the road. Turned the vehicle to off position in ignition switch then attempted to restart vehicle. Car started after several attempts. Went to nearest service store and once again was told that nothing appeared to be wrong because there were no lights on. Takes multiple cranking attempts to start the vehicle on a daily basis. No pattern to when. Could be in the am, pm, middle of the day, hot, cold, warm, raining, snowing, sunny, cloudy.
I purchased the car from auto park. Driving home and getting on the bypass going appx 65 MPH it was very hard to steer. The only way to describe it is saying it is like driving a car with no power steering. I took it to 3 places and all said it was the electronic steering and could not be adjusted. My husband took it on vacation in june 2012 and will never drive it again because of this issue... He will not let our son drive it because he feels it is unsafe. I am finally seeing other people with the same issue. What can be done. It has 90,000 miles now. I have 3 boys and drive a lot. I need this fixed.
A few days ago my torrent which is a 2006 model, the steering wheel started locking up. It happens when I start the truck up and I put it in any gear. The wheel itself will not move at all. Last night while going down the road the steering wheel locked up and completely stayed straight and would not move. Yesterday it locked up in the parking lot before I went to leave the wheel again would not move. I then put the truck in park and turned off the truck and turned it back on and it went back to normal where the wheel was moving like normal. This is a serious problem with this truck. Its happening more and more. This is my only car and im a single mom with a small child and I dont feel safe putting my child in the truck and drving him around with the fear of it locking up and then possibly hitting something and hurting us or someone else due to a malfuction. This issue needs to be looked into.
First wheel bearing went out at 16k miles to the right front. Then the left front went out with almost 36k miles. First two replaced under warranty. Then at 55k miles started having wheel sensor faults. Dealer fixed. Wire worn through again, same fault at 72k miles. Fixed ourselves with better tape on wire. Next the left wheel bearing/hub went bad and had to be replaced at 78k miles. 3rd wheel bearing for that side. Contact gm and no help with case there, so replaced with part from autozone to save money. At 83k miles right wheel bearing went bad. This one had two bolts stuck. Had to wait around 2 weeks for bolts. Paid a shop to torch off bolts and replace bearing.3rd wheel bearing for that side. This is not normal! Bearing should last over 100k. I kept the replacements that went bad if they could help figure out what is the root cause. Luckily it didn't cause an accident, but there is a major problem with my car to cause this.
The steering wheel locks on my son's 2006 pontiac torrent. We bought the car new in 2006. 2 months ago we spent $1500 in the heat and air issue. Ok no big deal. Had to do it. But when it comes to the safety of my child, I have to submit a complaint. The steering wheel locks up on him and he can be in any situation, morning traffic, quiet road, and all of a sudden no way to turn the steering wheel. He slows down, in any kind of traffic which leads to god knows what kind of situation. I believe this problem should be fixed for him at no cost. Steering wheels should not lock up for no reason. I expect to hear back on this issue. This is very dangerous. I can fix the wear and tear of any vehicle but when it comes to life threatening issues, there has to have been a case study and a solution found and I need to know what it is.
I had been to a town that was approx 30 miles from my home to take care of some errands. I returned back to my hometown and stopped by a store to grab a couple of things before heading to work. I then returned to my car and proceeded to crank it and drive off but when I put it in drive and took my foot off the brake to take off I could not turn my steering wheel but maybe an inch or two. I called my dad to come and check it because he is a mechanic and he couldn't find anything wrong with it. After it being shut off for about 20 minutes he crank it up and the steering wheel then worked and I was able to drive off. This was the first time this has happened but I work nights so I do not need to be stranded in a dark parking lot. I have only had my car for a year. I bought it used but it has not given me any problems until now. It has around 40,000 miles on it.
2006 pontiac torrent electronic steering issues. Car was started put into reverse but there was no power steering. Car was shut off and steering was back. This has happened several times this past year. Also when making tight turns steering is hard to turn back the opposite direction. Feel something is failing.
01-01-2009 started having issues with my pontiac torrent 2006 vehicle making lots of noise when turning steering clunking popping noise, dealership claims my vehicle is out of warranty.
The power steering is going out intermittently. There is no warning,no light,nothing.
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 pontiac torrent. When the contact arrived at his residence, he heard a clunking sound coming from the steering column. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and they stated that the intermediate steering failed in the steering column. The vehicle was repaired at the contact's expense. The failure mileage was 34,786 and current mileage was 35,000.
Steering wheel started smoking, brought it in to the shop and the terminal was brown from where it was burning, the shop replaced the terminal and the housing around some of the wires, the shop does not know what started the burning.
I have a 2006 pontiac torrent, that is/was driven by my son who was on his way home from work. The highway he was driving on has a speed limit of 65 MPH, with a leniency of going 70 MPH. Well there is construction of repaving the highway, well not all of the repaving was done especially getting onto the off ramp which has a high 2-3 inch drop off of asphalt. Approx. 1/4 mile of the highway getting onto the off ramp which was not paved completely still having the 2-3 inch drop off of asphalt. While my son was crossing over to get onto the off ramp, the paved drop off grabbed one or both of the left driver tires, which caused a steering and control problem to cause him to over correct onto a grassy dirt area on his right. He hit a tire mark that was left there from other accidents in the same area while the dirt was wet. As he hit this previous tire mark, he rolled the car three times. He was wearing his seat belt thank god, and having his seat slightly leaned back the seat belt locked and prevented him from hitting the steering wheel. However, the 2006 pontiac torrent has a rollover sensor that the car has as part of the security package, as well as onstar. As the car rolled the sensor did not sense the car rolling which resulted in not one of the air bags this car has was ever deployed at the time of car rolling to protect my son, which would be driver and passenger air bags and side curtain air bags. I took pictures of the head liner hanging and the air bags still rolled up on the inside. And onstar never detected the accident to get emergency help for my son. A bystander called for help. Thanks to god my son was able to walk a way from his car with mild injuries from him wearing his seat belt in spite of the air bags and onstar not working. The paramedics were surprised from looking at the damage of his car that my son was able to get himself out and walk away thanks to the seat belt. As for the car it's totaled beyond repair.
While driving down a residential street, there was a wobble in the front right of the car. The car suddenly spun out of control and crashed into a telephone pole. Both air bags deployed. My son, who was driving, was slightly injured and burned from the air bags. There is significant body damage to the right front of the vehicle. The body shop that has the car said the right front knuckle broke thereby causing the tire to fall off and loss of steering control. Other additional damage is a bent frame and bent brake calipers. I bought this car new from the dealer on 4/29/06.
When consumer was attempting to back out of parking space, 2006 torrent suddenly accelerated in reverse at high speed. *ts as a result the vehicle crashed onto another vehicle parked in the parking lot causing extensive damage to both vehicles. The vehicle was towed to the dealer's body shop. When they attempted to do an alignment they noticed damage to the steering system components (right front strut, steering knuckle, hub, bearing and lower control arm). The vehicle was then towed to the dealer's service shop to be inspected. The technician inspected and test drove the vehicle and found no codes stored in the vehicle's computer and determined that the vehicle was operating as designed.
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