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hi guys hoping someone may have an idea what caused the steering wheel to lock while going round a corner at 30 kph. My girl has a base model 2006 auto Impreza and was just starting to turn right into a 90 degree corner with slight power applied when the steering locked and she hit the kerb buckling the passenger front wheel and scaring the shit outa her. The engine hadnt stalled and after the crash the steering was fine. Car was trucked to the suby dealer who says.. cant find any faults. This was today and the dealer is going to contact subaru to see what they think. I think if they cant fix the thing they should keep it and replace with new vehicle but i cant see that happening. Any help or idea's would be gratefully appreciated as the suby dealer really doesnt have a clue. The car has been in for "dash lights that go dim when you accelerate" and they cleaned alternator terminals and say..its fixed but it wasnt, then they replaced the alternator and say.. its fixed but it wasnt. Now its become a death trap and they say...cant fix. The only other problem the car has had is i couldnt get it out of park and into gear {i did have foot on brake} and after about 5 minutes of trying and rocking the car back and forth it worked. this happened about 2 months ago, told service manager at 5000 service and he said he had never heard of this problem before. It hasnt done it again. The car is 5 months old and has done 13,000 k"s. Any idea's? thanks in advance R

It is not common that we hear about new Subarus playing up like that. My advice is get an independant mechanic to look at it and get a written quote to fix. Don't let them put any tools on the car though. Then take it back to Subaru with "professional" backing in the form of the quote.

If you are in SEQld I can recommend a few places for you to take it. Both of which are Subaru specialists in that is all they do. If you are not from this area, find a local Subaru club and talk to them about who is the specialist in your area. Quite often they will advertise in the club magazine.

Good luck with your probs. Hope to hear that it has been rectified.

Thanks for the reply and the advice BYB-01. I didnt hear from the dealer today as yesterday they said they were keeping the car to have another look at the dash lights problem and spend more time on the steering. I tend to think the problem must be in the rack as i cant see how the "key" lock could have activated with the key still inserted. Would love to strip it down for a look myself but have got the warranty issue. Thanks for the offer of a good suby specialist but i'm in FNQ and don't know of any up here as i have always worked on my 91 then 94 liberty's myself. Will see what the dealer comes up with and then maybe take the car to the RACQ to inspect as your idea sounds like they way to go. Thanks again and will let you know how it all works out. R

Where abouts are you in fnq. Im guessing not townsville as i work at the dealer and havnt heard of a car coming in with these problems.
The dimming dash lights has been a problem on one car we have had it, however as it was an intermitant problem it took a lot to sort out, from memory it was a bad earth on the chassie or behind the dash. not certan as i didnt repair it.

hi yeah i'm a bit further north than you in tville.
Gave subaru aust a ring on monday about the steering problem and they got in touch with the dealer and have decided to replace the steering lock. No luck with the dimming dash lights just yet as they reckon they are having the same problem with a few cars and havent figured out the cause yet. Will post when we get the car back on how its all going. R

It's a long shot, but an apparent steering lock can be caused by a bad uni joint in the steering column, wouldn't have thought this to be an issue with so few km on it though I just thought I should add this.

Another long shot - A rock got caught in the uni and hitting the kurb was enough force to shatter it makeing the steering work again?

On the other issues, I think a letter to Dept of Fair Trading and CC'd to Nick Senior couldn't hurt!

hi, thats a very valid point that i hadn't even considered subydazz. I'll mention it to the service manager tomorrow and see if they had thought of this.Got a msg today that the car is ready to be picked up. Its gonna be a very freaky drive home. I had a look in the gutter and on the footpath after she crashed and couldnt see any sticks or obvious rocks that could have jammed the steering, mechawagon, but you never know. Forgive my ignorance,mechawagon, but who's Nick Senior? thanks for the idea's, thoughts, guys R Ps the RACQ were very helpfull, i took byb-01's advice, and they recommended the steering lock and rack be replaced. wish i would have thought of the uni joint, they didnt either. well done subydazz.. thanks

rubyroo wrote: Forgive my ignorance,mechawagon, but who's Nick Senior?

Top Dog of Subaru Aus.

So how did this pan out? I think it could be a problem to prove that steering did lock, if it came down to it...