Today started out just like normal with our 2014 Impala LTZ. About 2 - 3 miles into the stops we needed to make, the instrument panel lit up like a Christmas tree while my wife was driving. It was a clear road, no ice, no snow, no rain. When the event happened, we got a stabiltrak disabled, and airbag warning light on the dash and the power steering went away. for messages we received a "Power Steering System - drive with care", Stabiltrak disabled and a message on the center console that icons were not available while backing up. I had the car scanned for DTCs and believe it or not, no codes were present. I broke out my service manuals and on finding the fuse that feeds the PS system, found that it was good and supplying battery voltage of 12.78V (Car off). The car has had the recall performed to correct a bad ground for the PS unit years ago when that recall came out. As far as I can tell, a bad PS unit or bad PS control module? Has anyone seen this before? I dropped the car off at my dealer this morning to be diagnosed on Monday morning. I will let you know what they find.

 

This may or may not be your problem, but many years ago I had the gauges do crazy things like you describe. Turned out to be the battery. Replaced with a new battery and everything went back to normal.

 

Thanks, I'll look into that. I think the battery is only a couple of years old, but cold weather tends to bring out the worst of them.

 

The dealer got my Impala all repaired. Aside from diagnostics, the only thing that was done was to replace the LR wheel bearing. They told me the magnetic ring for the speed sensor on that wheel bearing went bad. When I asked the service manager why would a bad speed sensor disable the power steering? I think it's a bad idea to shut off something that helps you steer when a rear speed sensor goes bad. He said well when you get a code for a bad speed sensor, it sometimes triggers other codes in the car and in this case one of them disabled the PS.