Problems with 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 STEERING

The truck was hooked to a 25' gooseneck trailer loaded with hay. the engine was the duramax diesel with allison transmission. the intent was to haul hay from eastern washington to western washington. the power steering pump broke a shaft inside the pump making the power steering unusable. as it turns out the power steering pump also serves as the power brake assist. at a speed of about 3 mph, it was all i could do to brake the truck but was unable to turn the wheels. it was very fortunate that this happened in the farmers field and not on the highway. if i had been driving on the highway when the pump quit working, the truck would have gone off of the roadway, most likely over a steep cliff because i would have been unable to steer the truck or stop it due to the single pump failure. additionally, the load of hay would have caused the truck to pick up speed if it was going down hill. *tr

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 chevrolet silverado 2500. while driving 5 mph in reverse, the power steering failed. the contact shut off the engine and has not yet taken the vehicle to the dealer. the current and failure mileages were 46,000.

Dt: while driving at about 60 mph and the consumer stopped to perform a turn. after completing the turn there was a loss of brakes and power steering. the consumer was able to drive home. this happened without warning, no previous occurrences. the consumer self diagnosed the issue as with the power steering pump. the consumer took apart the power steering pump, and the driveshaft of the power steering pump was broken . the consumer felt this may be due to poor casting or undersized in design. the consumer has not replaced this at this time. the consumer contacted both the gm dealer and manufacturer. they were not willing to pay for any repairs. no repairs or corrections have been made at this time. *ak the consumer repaired the vehicle himself. *nm

The power steering pump shaft has failed. as a result the vehicle's brakes failed and steering became impossible. please provide additional information. *nlm

The tie rod has broken twice in the last four months. the most recent was on 7/19/2003. vehicle is currently being repaired. *ak

The power steering pump failed causing the power steering and brake systems to fail at the same time. the garage stated that the power steering pump shaft broke. they replaced the power steering pump. the garage said that they have repaired several vehicles with this problem and are starting to see more of these failures. the garage did a fine job on the repairs. however, this could be potentially be a very, very dangerous situation, especially in heavy traffic or at higher speeds. thought you should be made aware. sincerely, [xxx] dt information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr

Steering wheel prevents consumer from seeing fog light button. there is a dome over ride button. also, headlights come on intermittently. dealership is aware of problem. *ak