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That was before yesterday's news when GM recalled close to a million and a half cars for this faulty electric power steering unit.

So, first, do we know what the flaws in this unit are (they seem to have been corrected after 2010, judging by the recall parameters. Unless this box was discontinued after 2010) and can we, the users, implement any fixes?


All the news I have seen revolves around the ignition switch for the recall and the power steering issues are for a different system (Cobalts, HHR's, etc...). There are some known issues and known fixes with the one I selected, but those are well documented and simple. When GM fixes it, they just swap out the entire unit, so the entire assembly is labeled as "bad". Typically you will see a burned up motor is this unit, which is available for replacement. Don't lump the Equinox/Vue unit in the with the Cobalts and HHR's. Different system that is being recalled.

One thing to remember, this system is adjustable. The motors burn up from slow parking lot, lock to lock, daily driver stuff. This thing isn't a daily driver. If you are worried about burning the thing up in slow stuff like that, turn the thing down. What's left? Your usual Mopar manual steering.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm not losing sleep over this. It's a very well documented swap in Europe on a lot of cars.

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Second, would you show us the structure you fabricate to mount the unit under the dash? This would save some wheel reinvention when I go to put mine in an E body.

I wouldn't think it would be too complicated. With the factory setup all the torque is provided by the driver and reacted by the steering box. The column mounts only have to take the lateral reaction loads.
With this electric box a lot of the torque, and a smaller reaction load, is now taken by the dash structure. Since people aren't too strong, I would think that the structure to react the loads would not need to be too hefty.

Have you got this structural reinforcement planned out yet?


When I have pics of the mounts they come up with I will post them up and detail the build.