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August 23, 2006
HUMMER WHEELS COLLAPSING?
A Scripps News investigative report says that NHTSA documents indicate a wheel component problem that appears to cause Hummer wheels to collapse or separate under low-level impact conditions. Agency engineers are studying more than 20 cases involving 2003-model Hummer H2s, according to the report. They are focusing on “how a part called a steering knuckle fractured or failed in the incidents, causing H2 suspensions to collapse or their wheels to separate.”
According to the report, “General Motors denies there is a safety problem with the metal part, which holds the steering arms in place near the front tires. It says that knuckle-related collapses and wheel-separation incidents are a consequence, not a cause, of H2 crashes and collisions. But in June 2003, the automaker changed the steering-knuckle part starting with model year 2004. The older part remains in the 47,900 model year 2003s.
The change was made not because there was a problem with the part, according to GM product-safety spokesman Alan Adler, but because GM always wants to ‘improve its products’. NHTSA engineers also have gathered data about 61 steering-knuckle failures on three-quarter-ton GM Suburban and Avalanche pickup trucks that used the same part, according to documents the company submitted to the government as part of the safety probe.”
Posted by MVHAP at August 23, 2006 09:26 PM