1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE — Complaint #652936
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:COLUMN LOCKING:ANTI-THEFT DEVICE filed January 10, 2008
NHTSA complaint #652936 (ODI reference 10214377) concerns a 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE and was filed on January 10, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 4, 2006. The vehicle had 18,501 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:column locking:anti-theft device, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same CHEVROLET CORVETTE cohort independently describe similar steering:column locking:anti-theft device failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
ON APRIL4, 2006, WHILE PARKED IN MY DRIVEWAY, MY 1998 CORVETTE, WHEN I TRIED TO START MY ENGINE, THE STEERING COLUMN FAILED TO UNLOCK AND WHEN I TRIED TO DRIVE THE ENGINE WOULD SHUT DOWN. I CALL THE LOCAL CHEVY DEALER, BILL BRANCH CHEVROLET LOCATED AT 3980 FOWLER ST, FT MYERS ,FL 33901. THEY SAID THEY UNDERSTOOD THE PROBLEM AND WOULD SEND A TOW TRUCK TO PICK UP THE VEHICLE AS I WAS UNABLE TO MOVE THE VEHICLE. THEY REPAIRED THE VEHICLE AT NO CHARGE BUT BILLED ME FOR TOWING. AS THE PROBLEM WITH THIS VEHICLE WAS LISTED UNDER YOUR RECALL, NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID # 00V111000,AS OF FEB 6,2004 WHY WOULD I BE CHARGED FOR TOWING ???? *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 652936 |
| ODI Number | 10214377 |
| Date Filed | January 10, 2008 |
| Failure Date | April 4, 2006 |
| VIN | 1G1YY32G3W5 |
Similar STEERING:COLUMN LOCKING:ANTI-THEFT DEVICE Complaints for 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY SERVICED UNDER NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER 04V060000 (STEERING:COLUMN LOCKING:ANTI-THEFT DEVICE). T
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE VEHICLE CONTINUED TO STALL. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER SIX TIMES TO HAVE REPAIRS PERFORMED UNDER NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE. WHEN STARTING UP THE VEHICLE, THE STEERING COLUMN WOULD LOCK UP. IT WOULD OCCASIONALLY BE RELEASED IF THE KEY WAS REMOVED AND THE VEHICLE WAS RESTARTED
RECALL ON COLUMN LOCK SYSTEM ON GM/CHEVY CORVETTE WAS PERFORMED ON 2-14-05 & NOT DONE PROPERLY. THE SOLUTION IS TO DISABLE THIS ANTI-THEFT SYSTEM AS IT CAN LOCK-UP ON YOU WITHOUT WARNING WHILE DRIVIN
1998 CHEVROLET CORVETTE CUSTOMER STATES THAT THE STEERING COLUMN SUDDENLY LOCKED UP AND WAS UNABLE TO STEER THE VEHICLE**CC THE CONSUMER WAS TOLD THE PROBLEM HE EXPERIENCED WAS A RECALL ISSUE. THE PR
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.