Car: 2008 Outook XR AWD
At low speeds steering is effortless and buttery smooth. At higher speeds (45 mhp +) The steering will stiffen up just like its supposed to, but its only stiff when turning the wheel about 10-15 degrees to the left or the right . Once you get to the end of the "stiff zone" it will get just a little bit harder to turn and then full power steering (low effort) seems to kick in. My wife describes it as sort of a "catch" in the steering. Its supper annoying when driving at freeway speeds small corrections are fine, but if there is wind or during lane changes its hard to steer smoothly as steering is stiff and and then will abruptly change to low effort when turning the steering wheel more than 10-15 degrees.
I have had this issue ever since I bought the car about 8 months ago. This issue along with bad rack bushings that were clunking caused me to replace the rack about 3 months ago. New rack was a factory rack and included the variable effort solenoid. Same issue occurs with the new rack. I am now wondering if this is just how GM variable effort steering is or if I possibly have something else going on.
At low speeds steering is effortless and buttery smooth. At higher speeds (45 mhp +) The steering will stiffen up just like its supposed to, but its only stiff when turning the wheel about 10-15 degrees to the left or the right . Once you get to the end of the "stiff zone" it will get just a little bit harder to turn and then full power steering (low effort) seems to kick in. My wife describes it as sort of a "catch" in the steering. Its supper annoying when driving at freeway speeds small corrections are fine, but if there is wind or during lane changes its hard to steer smoothly as steering is stiff and and then will abruptly change to low effort when turning the steering wheel more than 10-15 degrees.
I have had this issue ever since I bought the car about 8 months ago. This issue along with bad rack bushings that were clunking caused me to replace the rack about 3 months ago. New rack was a factory rack and included the variable effort solenoid. Same issue occurs with the new rack. I am now wondering if this is just how GM variable effort steering is or if I possibly have something else going on.