Steering shaft?

[JohnC]

There appears to be a little guy under my hood with a hammer and he keeps tapping on the steering column. Is this the thing that the dealer "greases" away? What actually causes the problem? Is there a reasonable, permanent fix?

[DmaxMaverick]

Take away the hammer:D

There is a bulletin for the shaft. Grease. Grease. Grease. Grease. Replace. Seems to be the trend. Sometimes the grease works. Sometimes it doesn't. It's a one hour or less procedure, so don't let the dealer keep your truck for a week.

[chevrolet1]

john c,i had the same situation as did a buddy of mine.i took mine in to jimmie johnson chev.where i purchased it and they repleced what they called the i shaft,i beleive the previuos fix was to grease,as they did to my buddies.on my work order the description shows shaft6.524,and,i think pt.#19153614,hope this helps,don't settle for the grease repair,as my buddy did,because it is at best a bandaid repair and mine has been silent since completed.chevrolet1 2006 hd

[JohnnyR]

Mine was supposedly replaced under warranty at 36,000 miles, but now is doing it again at 48,000 miles and out of warranty. Appears they didn't lubricate it correctly. So how is it fixed correctly? Can I just put up with the thumping when I turn or am I risking steering failure?

[JohnC]

Well, I finally called the dealer. They said they replace it, not grease it. The new part has at least temporarily banished the little guy and his hammer. Now I have this annoying vibration in the pedals at 1200 RPM...

(They also reprogrammed some EGR carp to get the SES light to go off. wonder which one is the cause).

[SHOPMAN426]

This might be some help to all the folks out there (and I know there are quite a few) that have this shaft noise problem. My '02 has had the problem since the day I brought it home from the dealer. It's been in three times for this repair. First they did nothing, next time they lubed it, third time they said they installed a new shaft. Both fixings only lasted six months or so. To this date I have a little over 29,000 miles on the truck and it rattles as bad if not worse than after owning the truck six months. I haven't been back, but the service guy said that I could bring it back if it starts to rattle again. He said if the first report of the problem was under warranty, (and it was) they would continue to work on the issue untill I was satisfied with the repair. The only catch was, you had to return to that exact dealer.

Hope this helps.

Shopman.
Mike.

[DIESELMAX403]

I have had this intermediate shaft greased on my Yukon XL '02 and replaced on my GMC truck '03. My truck has not rattled since and my Yukon rattled 6 months after the repair. I purchased supposedly a new style shaft from the dealer and installed it myself on my Yukon. The shaft began rattling again after 6 months. I discovered that the P/N they sold me was the old style. Moral of the story is get a new style shaft installed and you should be good. Oh, by the way, a rattling shaft is not dangerous, just annoying.


DieselMax403

[50+]

I guess I'm lucky. I had the lube kit done at 35,000. I'm still rattle free at 57,600.