Hey Scotty,
I've been a fan for years and am well aware of the dangers with buying a modern GM Vehicle. With that being said, I bought a 2021 2SS 1LE Camaro about 5 months ago with 5,300 miles on it. I bought the car because of it's amazing manual Tremec transmission and because this particular trim level is an AMAZING track vehicle.
I was out doing a canyon cruise with some buddies last weekend here locally. About 15 min into the cruise, my car suffered a very strange issue. First, I got a message in the dash saying "service power steering".... then the steering wheel began to shake violently until I pulled the car off the road.
Prior to this happening, I had a Dodge Challenger leaking water and fluid on my car for about 5 minutes as he had a loose hose or something. Had he not pulled over a few seconds before my fault happened... I would have been going considerably faster when it happened.
After I shut the car off, the car was still shaking for a total of 2 minutes. The front wheels and steering wheel appeared as if the car was having a seizure.
I shut the car off for 20 minutes, turned it back on and it was like nothing ever happened. My scan tool at home and the dealer both picked up the code "C055C:61 Steering Gear Performance Stuck".
Probably unrelated but there was a very prominent burning smell coming from the car that lasted for hours after this as well.
I took it to the dealer and within a minute of me being there, they agreed to replace the entire power steering assembly under warranty. It's going to take at least 2-3 weeks to get the parts... 10,300 miles on the car.
I know there was a big power steering recall in 2017, hard to believe this is related... but it might be pretty close.
Here's a quick video if it happened so you can see me freak out.
What are the odds this happens again while driving the car hard... who knows? Do you think a faulty steering wheel angle sensor or the car being out of alignment could have cause this issue?
Thanks for your help and everything you do!
Also adding @toyotagrl who owned a Camaro SS 1LE
You said it smelled funny so I'm assuming that the electronic power steering assembly is starting to melt down and break they are rather cheaply made take it under warranty but you should have heed my warning and not by a GM product.
I know Scotty, I bought it for fun... its my hobby.... They'll get me a new part under warranty ands we'll see how that goes. Appreciate you as always my friend and keep on being you!
The thing early on the 6th gens was that there was poor routing of electrical connector for the power steering that ran very close to a belt which would eventually chafe thru the wires. Then the GM Recall #: N182182760, loss of power steering is supposedly affecting 2016-2018. Not sure if your failure is related to this or an entirely new issue. I don't recall ever reading in the Camaro 6 forum a burning smell from the rack and the consequent shaking you experienced. I don't have my 2019 SS/1LE anymore so not in the forum as much as I used to be. You could check there to see if anyone has had this same rack failure.
btw, I had my '19 SS/1LE 2+ years and not one problem whatsoever. Loved the car, but not the payment so used the current market to get out of my loan and pocket $$. Wouldn't hesitate to get another if the opportunity arises in the future