NHTSA Complaint #11586239 — 2018 CHEVROLET BOLT EV

The rack and pinion steering degraded over a short period of time with less than 25,000 miles on the vehicle. The first thing we noticed was that the steering wheel would not return to center. Gradually, the steering worsened until it got to the point that the only way the steering would return to center was if it was forcefully pulled to center by the driver. The dealership told us they had no idea what could cause this. We looked online at Chevy Bolt forums and discovered that many other people were having these issues. We took the vehicle to a highly rated repair shop and the mechanic drove the vehicle. He felt it was one of two issues and tried to repair the system without replacing the entire rack and pinion but the repair was unsuccessful. He disassembled the car and determined that the rack and pinion had failed. He showed me evidence of a leak in the system. We have not had any difficulty since it was repaired 6 months ago. There were no warning lights or messages. This was extremely dangerous to both the driver of the vehicle, other drivers and passengers, as well as pedestrians and bicycles because the steering was so unresponsive. It was not possible to make a steering correction quickly due to the issue, thereby putting those in the vehicle and others on the road in danger of a collision.