U.S. Probing Reports of Steering Problems on ’97 Pontiac Grand Prix

U.S. regulators are investigating 18 reports of failed steering components on General Motors Corp.’s 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix cars, a probe that may lead to a recall of 143,653 vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s monthly report said two crashes occurred because of the failure of a rack-and-pinion steering unit on the cars. The steering system locked up in 14 of the incidents and steering was difficult during turns in four of the cases, the agency said.

NHTSA began a preliminary evaluation of the Grand Prix complaints on Nov. 14. In three of the cars, a dust cap fell off the rack-and-pinion steering system, the agency said.

“GM’s cooperating with the investigation,” said Jim Schell, a spokesman for the largest auto maker. He said he wasn’t aware of any reports of the problem collected by the Detroit-based company.

The automotive safety agency also closed a probe of defective water-pump pulleys in 1994-1998 Saab 900 cars on Nov. 19 and denied a petition seeking additional investigation of the vehicles, which now are made by the Saab division of General Motors. NHTSA opened that probe in September 2000.

Saab carried out a campaign in April 1997 to replace the water pump in all 1994-1998 Saab 900S cars with four-cylinder engines if they were found not to have the newly designed water pumps, NHTSA said. The new pumps used pulleys that were bolted to the pump shaft, rather than ones that were welded on, and could separate after metal fatigue cracks occurred.

Saab’s efforts to redesign the pulley and replace water pumps of the previous type made the use of NHTSA’s “limited resources” for the problem unnecessary, the agency said.