Had a bad moment last night.....

Just about home from work, making a (gentle) left turn, the steering column makes a new noise, sounds like a gear trying to engage and bouncing back out. Twice. Wasn't positive it came from my car, so I killed the stereo and kept going. About 3 miles later, I heard it one more time, in another gentle turn. I'm now in a parking lot, so I play with it and see if I can reproduce. Nada. Return to center, barely right of center... and BAM. I hear that click and no motion at all. It feels exactly like when the key is not in the ignition at all and the mechanical lock is engaged. I wiggle left, right, then when I go left again, all is back to normal.

I'm thinking it has to be the ignition switch interlock. Does anyone know exactly where that is found on our columns? The best I was able to approximate from searches is that it is all one part with the keyswitch housing, but I'd like to be sure before I go a-hunting.

Also, does anyone know if this is an all mechanical linkage, or is there a servo in there that might be getting uppity?

 

ouch. GL with ur search for the answer. i wouldnt know anything about this.. ive never heard of it clicking while driving... thats dangerous...

 

Bump for freshness.... and hopefully an awesomely detailed reply.....

 

If you're still under warranty I'd head to the dealership! That could be dangerous! Could be pricey too. Good luck and I'm interested in hearing about the outcome.

 

I can tell you I had a similar issue before. This might be completely different but I would ask yourself if you've been playing with any fuses or the fuse box recently for any reasons even if it has nothing to do with your steering column. If so then we're onto something. My wheel locked up when I was installing a horn that drew too much power and it happened to be the same fuse for something that Honda decided was unsafe if it wasn't functioning and thus created a mechanism that locked the wheel when the vehicle was put into park.


Did the wheel lock after you put it into park? If so, you're probably talking about the same mechanism. I wouldn't be so quick to dive into the steering column and risk voiding warranty.

 

Nope, been nowhere near the electrics in at least six months. It locked up while driving, not in park.

I have not had the headlight recall done (fwiw), and I'm long out of warranty now.

I'm not happy that I couldn't reproduce the problem, nor find a cause for it. I did have some warning before lockup, so I decided to go ahead and drive. Ever since, all has been normal. (You'd better believe that I'm paranoid about a recurrence, though)