Power Steering loss

[eecom]

$1100 I better spring for the extended warrantee!

[DrydenSRT]

I purchased a 2012 SRT8 this past April. The dealer I purchased it from is 5 minutes away from the Chrysler Tech Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. As I was taking delivery of the car, I was approached by a man who stated he is one of the lead engineers in the SRT group. He thanked me for purchasing the product and went on the tell me about all the performance nuances most people walking down the street are unaware of. During our conversation he mentioned the power steering problem your having and told me they found the fix. He walked over to his car, reached in his satchel case and returned with a power steering fluid reservoir cap which he gave to me. They found that pressurizing the system eliminated the problem your having and said they were introducing this new 12 PSI cap into production for the 2013 model year. All existing caps are vented to atmospheric pressure. I installed the new cap and have never experienced the issue you have. Granted, I only put 3500 miles on my car this year but some of the other posts say they've had it happening since day one. Perhaps ordering a 2013 reservoir cap from your dealer will fix the lock-up problem. You would have to be sure your getting the pressure cap and not an old vented cap.

[JS23V0B]

Sounds like a bad rack, but it would likely repeat the problem every time, not intermittently, something else is adding to the problem. Keep us up to date on your progress, this sounds like an issue that we may all start to experience soon.

[occar]

I used to have something similar happen if parked with the front of the car slightly elevated when I would back up to exit the parking space. The wheels weren't turned, but there was little to no power steering assist until after I'd reversed, turned, and put the car in drive, then I would have assist. It made no sense. I ended up using a different parking space at work, and it happened nowhere else ever.

[GSMC]

Originally Posted by DrydenRT

I purchased a 2012 SRT8 this past April. The dealer I purchased it from is 5 minutes away from the Chrysler Tech Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. As I was taking delivery of the car, I was approached by a man who stated he is one of the lead engineers in the SRT group. He thanked me for purchasing the product and went on the tell me about all the performance nuances most people walking down the street are unaware of. During our conversation he mentioned the power steering problem your having and told me they found the fix. He walked over to his car, reached in his satchel case and returned with a power steering fluid reservoir cap which he gave to me. They found that pressurizing the system eliminated the problem your having and said they were introducing this new 12 PSI cap into production for the 2013 model year. All existing caps are vented to atmospheric pressure. I installed the new cap and have never experienced the issue you have. Granted, I only put 3500 miles on my car this year but some of the other posts say they've had it happening since day one. Perhaps ordering a 2013 reservoir cap from your dealer will fix the lock-up problem. You would have to be sure your getting the pressure cap and not an old vented cap.

I'm trying to understand this...but I need help. Reservoirs are normally not filled up to the cap. They have a dipstick for cold/hot levels attached to the cap. Granted, maybe I need to look closer at my Challenger to see if that whole design has changed, but I still don't get how the reservoir is supposed to be pressurized?!? Never ever heard of such a thing.

EDIT: That guy didn't happen to have a timing chain in that sachel too - did he?

[scotte2010]

Check out my posting on the new thread "Leaking rack and pinion unit".

There is a TSB for some 2010 Challengers a little over 5000 of them.