I'm going to share my OH $#&% moment with my ZL1 friends on the chance (not hope) that somebody else may have experienced the same. In searching threads, I've not found anything quite like what happened to me so I really want to hear from you if you have had anything similar steering situation at any speed or in any condition while driving the ZL1. I don't know why, but I'm under the impression that the rack is unique to the ZL1 and not shared with the 1LE or SS. I could very well be wrong...
Essentially, what occurred: I was coming out of turn #11 at Laguna Seca, driving towards what had become my typical speed down the front straight of 122 mph at the apex of turn #1. At about 110 mph I dive slightly in towards the finish-line ending about a foot from the wall where I usually pick up the final 5-10mph towards turn #2. Only on this lap the feedback on the steering goes completely away on approach and I start drifting anywhere from 1 to 2 feet, left and right. The feeling at the wheel was strong vibration and wobble as if you are losing a wheel. I seriously thought I sheared 4 wheel studs and I was riding out a partial wheel departure.
As I pass the hot-pit wall I try to ease off the pedal slightly to scrub speed, fearing a full lift would surely send my ass end around to lead the car into the gravel or, worst yet, the wall at 100mph+. As I do so, the car starts sending warning chimes and flashing systems messages across the screen. The HUD flashes traction loss indicators, as does the primary screen. Interestingly, you can see the slip warning on the lower right of the PDR at about 94mph and I don't know if that was true slip or consequential to the steering failure. It was like floating at this point.
As speed decreases I can distinctly deduce that the steering rack is going completely bonkers. On video, you can maybe discern the car is going left to right but what you are not seeing is the entire steering wheel wickedly vibrating to the point that it is difficult to hold onto with two hands. As RPM noise is reduced near the 20 second mark on the video (in turn two) you can hear the chimes again indicating on the screen a steering systems failure.
I ran the car through the remaining 9 turns to the hot pits and I had a difficult time about half way through keeping the car in the middle of the track. The only reason I continued is that the corner officials saw my issue and initiated a full course caution, otherwise I would have had to pull off and tow in.
I got the car back to the pits and I put the parking brake on, shifting to neutral. That was where it was obvious that the R&P was in some kind of meltdown. The vibration was even stronger sitting still and made some nasty servo noises. Shutting the car down did not immediately stop the rack from it's convulsing either. I had the car in full shut down and it wasn't until I got out and walked to the front of the car that the system shut itself off, ending the wicked shake.
A visual inspection showed no indications of concern. Nothing. Everything was fine. Fluid levels. Heat level. No debris, impacts, loose nugs, etc. So, I head back to the cockpit thinking a computer reset would help and sure enough, after restart, problem gone.
I took the car out for 10 miles of open road testing to see if I could replicate the problem but everything worked flawlessly. I went back to the pits and inspected the car from the underside and all was well. I am stumped. I headed back out for another practice session and continued with great awareness but nothing happened. The problem essentially resolved itself with a full power down. Not even a code.
I've not learned yet if I can extract more information from within the storage device on the data recorder in the car but i am hopeful there may be answers there or with a full dealer pull.
If there is anybody that has experienced this type of problem and has knowledge to share, please do. While this worked out okay on this day, I am now driving the car in a bit of a defensive manner. The video does not show the chaos that took place in the cockpit this day but I assure you it was no fun stumbling upon the problem during high speeds. I am so freaking thrilled that this track session was during the states huge winter storm so the track was wet and cold all day. The tires never heated up enough to push the car so I was already driving with great caution and much lower speeds.
If it helps, I cut the video below to somewhat provide a setting to the issue. 5 seconds in, I am hit with the loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skDOKbNsMQM
Please respond with any help!!!
