2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV complaints

About five weeks ago my car started not wanting to auto correct after a turn or curve. The steering seemed to be resistive to turning the steering wheel in either direction except for a small part in the center. The not correcting is worse when turning right. It does occur to a lesser extent turning left. On right turns I sometimes have to really push the steering wheel to get the car to go straight. I have taken it to the Chevy dealer twice regarding this issue but they seem to not know how to correct it. This issue occurs at most any speed. Sometimes the steering seems to stick, i.e. I drove two thirds the way around a clover leaf with no hands on the steering wheel.

My car has been showing signs of faulty steering wheel for some time, particularly at sweeping corners while on low speed. The wheel will not return to its center any more. It turns out that this could be caused by a faulty gear. Is there any recall about that problem, please? NB: The color of the car is red, and not blue as it appears in the report.

The steering wheel will intermittently fail to return to center. It's entirely possible to take a sweeping corner at speeds of 50mph and the vehicle will require no additional steering input beyond the initial turn in. This makes it hard to judge the behavior of the vehicle especially when trying to judge road feel when there is no feedback through the wheel that is stuck.

Out 2017 Bolt Premiere since purchase has had steering that does not return to center on it's own and requires more steering effort than expected for a modern power steering car. Research indicates this is a common problem with the Steering Gear failing, but many drivers likely don't realize how serious it is. In our case we didn't fully appreciate it until we bought a second 2017 Bolt EV that did not exhibit this problem and we could directly compare their steering behavior. This raises a concern that there may be more failing steering units but without a "good" car to compare against, it may go unnoticed by drivers until there is a catastrophic failure, potentially causing an accident and/or injury. Issue has been present since used purchase, date of incident is approximate purchase date.

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 21V560000 (Electrical System) and 22V930000 (Structure, Seat Belts) and would like to be removed from the recall distribution list as he no longer owns the vehicle. The local dealer and manufacturer were contacted.

The steering wheel doesn’t return to center and makes clunking noises. It is a safety hazard while driving. Scares the crap out of me. The problem has been reproduced and diagnosed as a faulty steering rack assembly. There are no warning lights . My car is parked in my driveway available for inspection by anyone.

When traveling at moderate speeds the steering wheel does not return to straight when steering input is not provided. The car will maintain the steering direction, requiring additional input to return to straight. This is not how a car is supposed to behave. It is not an alignment issue.

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH and making either a left or right turn, the steering wheel failed to return to the center position. The contact stated that he manually steered the steering wheel to the center position. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where the failure could not be duplicated. The contact consulted with an independent mechanic who had previously repaired a vehicle of the same year, make and model. The mechanic informed the contact that the steering rack was likely failing and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000.

Front window cracked all the way across after using the defrost selection on the heating control. Saw a couple articles about it happening to others. Dealership said they know nothing about the issue.?

Steering would not return to the center position after turning.

Steering failing to return to center - Steering gear (rack and pinion) operating at greatly increased effort. Self- inspection performed, results are consistent with other drivers on a specialty internet forum reporting similar problems with replacement of the steering gear being the remedy. Inspection of failed part shows likely chemical degradation and failure of the factory installed lubricant.

Steering wheel fails to return to center and gets stuck in a curve position requiring manual effort to return the wheels straight causing the potential for an accident. It is periodically becoming harder to straighten.

My driver's side seatbelt buckle will not latch onto the tongue. Sometimes I can get the buckle to latch onto the tongue by aggressively and repeatedly jamming the tongue into the buckle. Most of the time the tongue will not latch into the buckle. In the event of an accident, I'm concerned that the buckle will not hold due to this intermittent latching issue.

The steering does not return to center after turning left or right. The steering sticks and you have to apply force to bring it back to center. This is very dangerous.

In Sept 2020, GM issued Service Bulletin 20-NA-170 regarding rapid popping or clicking noises coming from the I-Booster hardware under the hood in the BOLT braking system. Earlier fixes for this issue involved replacing the I-Booster hardware, but that didn't solve the problem. The new fix called for a software update to the Brake Booster Control Module. The Bulletin states: "Correction -- DO NOT replace the I-booster assembly. Update the Brake Booster Control Module with the latest software." What happens to the brake system if the software update is not applied? Does the I-Booster hardware eventually fail because of the 1000's of unnecessary use cycles, and then what happens? Why hasn't a recall been issued for this possible safety issue caused by a software defect?

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V560000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. The contact stated that they were on a waitlist with the dealership but then suddenly taken off. The contact has been suggested to pay the shipping cost to send the vehicle outside of Alaska for repairs. The contact stated that they are still waiting for the recall repairs to be made and they have not heard back from GMC.

The steering wheel started feeling gritty and not returning to its central position. I was told this was an internal steering gear failure.

My steering wheel does not return to center after turning the wheel . It has almost caused several accidents. This is a safety issue and should be recalled . I can’t afford to replace the steering system. This should never happen on such a new car with 50k miles on it.

Steering wheel no longer returns to center. When I make a turn the steering wheel feels like it is binding and does not return to center without the drivers correction.

2017 CHEVROLET BOLT. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO NHTSA SAFETY RECALLS 20V-701 AND 21V-560.

The steering binds after making a turn. It will not return the wheel to center without deliberate effort on my part. I had the alignment checked and it is all within spec. It appears to be an issue with the steering rack itself. This is an ongoing issue.

This car worked reliably until the battery recall battery was exchanged then this started happening about a month later. First the vehicle died upon slowing down, driver was exiting a highway ramp stopped the car and turned off the car and turned on again and drove home without further trouble. Happened again, same thing this was at night. Then myself as driver, Took car to dealership, stayed in right lane on highway then car failed to accelerate but maintained about 40mph then died as slowing down on exit. After much time turning off and on again, the car finally allowed it to be put in drive and I made it to the dealership. After a week the dealership couldn’t find anything wrong with the car and said no charge but they can’t diagnose. Driving the car again, it drove fine until it didn’t. This time died and wouldn’t allow it to be put into drive again. Said conditions not right to shift. Towed it to a different dealership, the one that changed the recalled battery and they got 77 code errors and cannot figure out anything after a month. Still keeping to drive to recreate the problem. The biggest safety issue was that the emergency blink lights turned off when I turned off the car to try and restart it.

Since the car was new, the windshield wipers have had a software error that can disable the wipers in snowy weather. It is not unusual for one or the other wiper to stop working for no apparent reason in snowy conditions. If the passenger's side stops working, it isn't too bad, but if the driver's side wiper stops working, then it traps the other wiper below it, preventing both from working. Sometimes after several minutes, the passenger wiper will push the driver wiper up about 1/3 of the way up the windshield, at which point it will kick in once, then stop working again. Stopping and restarting the car generally will not help, but leaving it off overnight will usually reset the software and the wipers start working normally again. It seems like it is a software bug with detecting if the wipers are frozen/stuck, that incorrectly thinks that a wiper is stuck, even when it is not, and decides to disable the wiper. This has happened many, many times, I should have reported it years ago. I attached a couple of pictures from a dashcam video one of the times it happened, it's harder to see from pictures than the video, but in the first picture the bottom, passenger side wiper is down, and the second picture it is trying to move up, but is blocked by the top/driver side wiper. It may appear that the wiper is frozen and stuck, but it is not, and after several minutes the bottom wiper was able to move the disabled top wiper significantly up the windshield. Chevy needs a software upda

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated while the vehicle was parked, the vehicle suddenly lunged forward. The contact pumped the brake pedal several times, but the vehicle continued to drive forward. The contact was able to avoid crashing into an apartment building. The vehicle went airborne for 30 feet and landed on the street causing the tires to blowout, and two of the rims to be cracked. The contact’s wife suffered a head injury and sought medical attention. No police report was filed. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, no failure was found. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the case would be escalated. The failure mileage was 72,000.

2017 Chevy Bolt steering wheel not returning to center issue and remaining in position. While driving on I35, steering wheel remained in position and had a difficult time to manually return to center. Local dealer (certified EV tech) checked but they were clueless, claimed to have escalated to GM engineering. However, never heard back. As Bolt EV owner , there is a Facebook group ( Chevy Bolt EV and EUV Owners), we noticed that multiple owners reported this issue and turn out is the steering gear/rack has problem. And many owners experienced difficulty to return steering back to center while driving. Some of them claimed as stiffness. I described as tightening. Mine happened when it reached 50,000 miles. This issue is definitely put myself and other people’s lives in risk. I hope US Department of Transportation will investigate this issue.

When moving thru curved roads or turns the steering has begun to stick in position AND not return to center upon completing the turn. This is NOT normal and has caused risk of a crash. NO warning from the cars information center on any malfunction or service light illuminated. Car has had alignment from Chevrolet dealer after tire replacement at 40k miles. No issues were reported. Condition has continued and has not been taken for inspection or repair. Owner has now gotten used to it and just compensates. Suspected steering rack binding as others have reported.

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated that the vehicle was designed with One Pedal Driving mode that allowed the brakes to apply independently when releasing the accelerator pedal; however, while driving at various speeds with One Pedal Driving mode engaged, the accelerator pedal was released but the vehicle continued to move forward. The contact depressed the brake pedal and the vehicle responded. Additionally, the contact stated that the electronic parking brake failed to respond when engaged. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring intermittently. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an unknown dealer where the failure could not be duplicated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 38,000.

While turning the steering wheel, it is stiff and feels like something is grinding when I try to turn it!!! Someone please fix this It is making me uneasy I can send video but this form doesn’t have that option

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the steering wheel would not properly return to center. Additionally, the steering wheel was difficult to turn in either direction. The was taken to the local dealer who indicated that the steering failure was caused by faulty gears within the steering rack. The contact was informed that the steering rack needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 50,000.

The contact owns a 2017 Chevy Bolt. The contact stated that the vehicle's steering wheel fails to automatically straighten itself out when he releases his grip. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer who diagnosed that the steering rack assembly failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 49,000

Steering wheel would not return to center after turning left or right. Dealer confirmed problem: "rack and pinion assembly binding internally." Dealer replaced failing parts: one Gear $335.23, and two Rods $91.24, plus labor $2073.00. Problem happened at all speeds. Problem manifested gradually over several weeks. There are no warning lamps for this problem. Mileage on car approximately 100,000.

The steering wheel in my car no longer returns to center after making a turn. I have to force it back to steering straight. This seems unsafe to me because it's not the expected behavior of the steering system. Every car I've ever had automatically centers the wheel when it's released if you're moving, so it's surprising when it doesn't happen and could lead to a crash. I've not had it inspected yet, but I see online that many people are having the same problem, and it's traced to a defective steering gear that is binding. There were no warnings from the car related to this issue.

The steering gets stiffer and stiffer and won't return to center after a turn. This should be fixed by GM. The car has had the issue for a long time and slowly gets worse,\.

The Steering Gear failed after 55,000 miles. This caused the steering wheel to lose the ability to return to center after a turn, requiring the driver to manually center it. This was confirmed and replaced by the dealer (McCluskey Chevrolet). The steering losing it's expected travel is a safety concern as it could cause drivers to change direction in ways they don't expect. No warning messages occurred before or after the failure.

When driving down the road with no other vehicles around the blind spot warning light On the passenger side mirror will illuminate and turn off and on several times with no vehicles around. Which inadvertently triggers the forward collision system and locks up the brakes on the car. Once the forward collision system is activated there's no no way to reinitiate Acceleration until it turns off. This has happened several times on the highway causing me to have to force my car off under the shoulder to prevent from getting rear ended. With one time happening causing a semi to veer off the road. This is a very unsafe condition, and it has become more prevalent ever since they change the battery in the car.

Faulty steering rack. Steering wheel does not return to center while in turn, intersection, etc. requires manual turns of wheel. Multiple steering engineering design flaws including U-joints vertical position of connectors with sway to harness, as well as column angle. Bad design.

"POOR RETURN OF STEERING WHEEL" or “After completing a turn, extra steering input is required for the steering wheel to return to center." I almost got into an accident because the steering wheel is very stiff and it is difficult to make left and right turns. It is only getting worse especially during cold seasons. My safety has been put at risk and can not comfortably drive my vehicle. I shouldn’t have to wait till I get into an accident for something to be taking seriously. I am nervous to drive my own car because I simply can not steer it. “This is a safety issue because it's not how a car is supposed to steer and because the rack is binding up and might eventually fail, causing it to lock up. It is especially dangerous in wet or snowy conditions”

The steering wheel tracks the direction of turn it is not returning to center. This problem was reported and reproduced by dealer. The steering felt always different but we thought that on an electric car it should be that way until out son told us that this is wrong.

Vehicle and steering wheel will violently share for no apparent reason. Started after battery was replaced as part of recall. Tires balanced, and aligned. Only seem to happens when reach about 50% of battery capacity. Please help

The steering is very tight compared to other like models I have driven. I have, on several occasions almost had low speed collisions when turning. When turning at speeds below 45 MPH, the steering wheel will not return to center without applying what I would consider to be excessive force by the driver. The problem is worse when turning to the left. I feel that this is a safety issue as the wheel should return to center when released when in a turn at below highway speed. I purchased the car in 2020 when it had 27000 miles on it, and it exhibited the problem of tight steering at that time, although it seems to have gotten worse over the past two years. I recently posted on the Chevrolet Bolt Facebook forum asking if anyone had experience the same issue and if so, were they able to get it fixed. Multiple people responded that they had the same issue and some had fixed it by having the steering rack replaced. Soon thereafter, the post was removed from the forum by General Motors, and they contacted me via direct message. They were very insistent that they wanted to help me resolve the problem and took my information so they could arrange to have the problem diagnosed at a Chevrolet dealer. I agreed and gave them the VIN and my contact information. I made a service appointment at the dealer, and took the car in for diagnosis. The dealer kept the car for a day and they communicated to me that the steering did indeed feel tight, and that there was a service bulletin for that probl

The steering on my 2017 Chevrolet bolt has a weird issue when driving highway speeds the steering feels loose and the steering wheel feels like it shaking back and fourth rapidly and making shuttering noises and the steering constantly veers while driving with any irregularity of a road surface. I have take my car to a repair shop and have good wheels and tires and had a wheel alignment service and they checked all suspension and steering component and the issue still persist. The shop told me the issue seems to be coming from the steering rack and the electric steering assist.

After about 5 years and a warranty replacement battery, I intermittently find the “Propulsion Reduced-Service Soon” light on. It can appear any time after which only a third of the 60kWh battery is on-line, and in any event the battery will not charge over one third. Highway driving on a crowded Interstate 5 becomes very hairs as both acceleration and regeneration braking are markedly reduced. It is now at the service department of Bill Pierre Chevrolet in Seattle. Those guys are great, and are doing everything they can, looking to GM for a promised reprogram that has not been forthcoming for some two weeks and counting. This might seem like a minor consumer gripe, but it turns out that this is not a new condition, and has persisted since shortly after the 2017 Bolt came out. See <https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Bolt/2017/electrical/propulsion_power_reduced-service_immediately.shtml>. The Bolt is a great car, but this has shaken my sense of safety in long distance 80+ miles of highway travel. I no longer consider this to be a safe car.

The car Battery caught fire!

For some time now the steering wheel doesn’t return to center by itself. Sharp left or right turns , the wheels stay that angle when I let go of the steering wheel . I thought it would work itself out , but over the months it’s getting very noticeable. I feel for my safety .

After the second recall replacement of the lithium-ion battery, the car became undriveable because it could not be charged. A message appeared before stating "Propulsion Power is Reduced". This is after the 2nd new battery was installed. The car has been taken to the dealership. The dealership stated that it is a software problem which GM is looking into.

Steering has to be manually turned back to center on any turns. New tires did not help. New alignment did not help. Reprogramming steering module did not help. This is dangerous as we are taught to let the steering bring itself back to center.

The contact owns a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV. The contact stated that the propulsion system warning light illuminated. While the contact was driving approximately 10 MPH, the vehicle stalled and stopped inadvertently. The contact was able to get the vehicle safely to her residence. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The vehicle was diagnosed with transmission harness failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 51,000.

Since purchased 4/21/2022, the steering doesn’t return to center after turning. Feels like steering wheel is so tight that I have to turn wheel back after turning to be able to then go straight again.

My vehicle for months failed to correct back to straight from right turns. Later on the vehicle started making creaking noises when turning, especially tight turns. The car started to frequently turn itself tighter in right turns, where I would have to force the wheel back to straight or even compensate left to maintain a consistent turn. My local trusted mechanic diagnosed that the steering rack/gear is failing and told me I would lose all steering control should the part fail and that it was unsafe for me to continue to drive my vehicle. I had the vehicle brought to a dealership to do the work. Through discussions with other Bolt owners, this is a common problem for Bolts and particularly the 2017s.

The driver's side blind spot monitor never worked well from new with false positives, and by the end of 2019 it just stayed on 90% of the time. The passenger side monitor generally worked better, but still had false positive signals on occasion. There is a TSB (17-NA-097) for this issue. With Covid, and unhelpful dealerships, it took 4 tries at different dealerships before it was finally fixed recently. The film over the both sensors was non-functional, just as described in the TSB. As there is a TSB, this is a known issue for this vehicle from the factory.