power cutting out when steering wheel is turned right. WEIRD SOLUTION!!

[Johnbalderas90k1500]

i had a problem months ago, whenever i turned the steering wheel all my power in my truck would drop and my truck would run rough and stall untill i straightened out my steering wheel. i could not figure it out. my horn got stuck and it would not turn off till i killed my truck. i thought my steering column was shorted out and i needed a new one. well i found a solution shortly after this problem. it was my battery. i go to sacramento UTI and i asked around. one of the veteren students helped me out. he shook my battery real hard and it fixed my problem it was real weird.

i knew my battery was bad cause it would not hold a load. if i played my stereo when my truck was off just for literally 5 seconds it would kill my battery. so i replaced my battery and it fixed this crazy problem i never would of started there. hopefully this helps anybody who has a similiar problem

 

[DRAGGIN95]

That is strange, but a bad battery can cause some weird things to happen.

 

[USAF_Slacker]

hmm... i know when my power steering pump was going out in my first OBS and i slowed down and cut the wheel at the same time, lets say, turning into my drive way or a walmart smashing lot, it would stall out and bog baddd! hopefully its just the battery causing all that

 

[Johnbalderas90k1500]

hopefully this solves it. would be a lot more simple to replace.

 

[therealtor1]

1st post. Great site you guys got here, i'm learning alot about my new rig. I know i'm resurrecting a dead thread here but I just picked up a 98' gmc c1500, 5.0, sl, extended cab, shortbed and i'm having this same issue. Truck runs awesome 99% of the time but twice now in the last week since i've owned it, if i'm making a sharp turn (so far its only happened from a dead stop not while actually moving down the road) the truck just dies. No power, nothing.

The first time I had no idea what was going on so I just popped the hood and while i was digging around in the back for my toolbag I heard the door buzzer start to come back to life slowly and after a few tries on the key she finally fired up and i was able to get her home. I put a volt meter on it and everything looked good.

Drove great for a few days and then last night I backed out of my driveway, put in drive cut the wheel and she died again. This time we put a voltmeter on it within 2 minutes after it had died, and it was jumping around quite a bit. At the advice of my stepdad who had done a quick google search I pulled the + & - wires and wirebrushed the bolt/connectors. The + was fairly corroded, the - looked good. After we'd cleaned the connections we put a voltmeter back on it seemed to be holding steady at about 12.9.

This sounds alot like what was going on with John's rig, and just curious if anybody else has had this same experience? It seems like everyone I talk to has a differing opinion about what it could be, and that usually ends up costing me alot of $

 

[shelbyt.67]

Ground connections are critical. Check all your grounds. Not just the battery. Battery is #1 offender, but corroding terminals throughout the frame/body mounts can cause a multitude of mysteries.

 

[trailer-trash]

I would check the battery connections first....then the power steering pump..I have put more than a couple pumps on my rig haha

 

[therealtor1]

Ground connections are critical. Check all your grounds. Not just the battery. Battery is #1 offender, but corroding terminals throughout the frame/body mounts can cause a multitude of mysteries.

I would check the battery connections first....then the power steering pump..I have put more than a couple pumps on my rig haha

thanks for the replies. I definately need to give her a thorough once over and try to identify and address anything that might appear as future headaches down the road. I'll also check out the power steering pump as well "trailer". I wonder why the turning of the steering wheel seems to bring it into play except that maybe its putting a load on entire electrical system when turning and thats when the bad connections really expose themselves (i'm just guesssing out loud really regarding this).

 

[Johnbalderas90k1500]

Your power steering pump puts a load on the engine when turning. If your Idle air control valve is gummed up it may have a hard time correcting your idle speed after turning or using your A/C, which could in turn stall your engine.