Steering issue.

[djcobraman427]

I bought a '99 Tahoe 4X4 and noticed that the steering was very "light", not much effort to steer. Is this a normal thing?

Also, when I first drove it, I noticed on the freeway that when making a slight right turn, the steering had a spot where it felt like it slipped a bit, then would catch. I replaced the steering arm and idler arm, lowered the truck, added new tires, aligned it and it still has that same slight "dead" spot in the steering feel, not as bad, but still there. Everything was checked out by 3 different shops and I was told that everything was good.

I drive a 1-ton Chevy van with 288,000 miles and the steering is perfectly normal. So, why is the steering so "light'? Any ideas?

 

[04Z71HDHoe]

For a 99 it is, in 1999 GM introduced the Cadilac Escalade, and the GMC Yukon Denali. And when they did so they were based off the current Tahoe and Yukon platforms. The engineers target market was customers who's median household income is of over 100k a year. Hence the light steering the target demographic was no longer construction workers but now the soccer mom and house wife. And was deemed to have a lot of parking lot maneuvers thus requiring a light feeling steering box. Of course I made this all up off the top of my head, but it seems plauseable. I've had many C/K Pickups Tahoe's and Burbs as well as a Couple Denali's and a Escalade and do know the light feeling you've felt and I do know that that my 99 Denali and 00 Denali both had a distinctly different feel than my 95 Burb my 96 Pickup and my 97 Tahoe. My 2000 Tahoe had the light steering you're referring to I had a 98 Burb that had the light steering and my 99 Sierra's both had it too my 2000 Escalade had light steering my 97 Yukon did not. Now if we look at the changes that happened to the line up in 94 They got the Face lift, in 95 the new interior and Air Bag, 96 Vortec came along and a dome override switch, 97 a passenger Air Bag and a new dash. From 1998-2000 ish they got the tiny airbag and a few other changes to software and if I had to guess possibly to steering box because I know first had the pumps are the same. Hope this was useful if not at least funny.

 

[djcobraman427]

That really makes sense. Thanks.