The steering column no longer move to the preset location. When you fire it up the column motor makes a noise but does not move. Like the gears are stripped or stuck. When you hit the switch that normally adjusts the wheel it stops and remains at the point it was when the car is turned off. Has anyone else run into this or taken the steering column apart to investigate?

We have just enough miles on the 2009 to take it out of warranty so I am hoping for someone that can give me some insight.

Thanks,
Corey

How many miles are you over the warranty?

See if the dealership can work with you because that shows terrible quality.

It has 49,000 on it now. Of course the dealer service guy says "We've never seen this before". I will likely have to put a call into Nissan to ask if they will help. I can't imagine something that should be designed for extremely high cycle life failing already. The damn thing moves every time you push the start / shutoff the engine button. I will let you know what they find...

Update: Both motors (tilt and telescope) are toast and the dealer says Nissan is not willing to chip in. I now have a call into Nissan to see if they will help and should have a call back tomorrow form the Regional Service Rep. We have always had a problem with the memory setting not returning it back to the correct height but I assumed this was normal and didn't complain under warranty (apparently a mistake). Has anyone else seen this? If so it might be time to take yours in for a free motor swap while you have some warranty remaining.

Update: Nissan has no explanation as to why both motors would fail simultaneously and apparently doesn't really care. They also are not willing to contribute anything towards the repair. $40,000 car and motors that should outlast the car fail and nothing. I guess I'll stick to Subaru's and skip the Infiniti I was thinking about buying.

My advice is to get your motors replaced under warranty before they mysteriously stop working and you get to drive around like you're driving a school bus.

Thats trash, talk to the CEO of Nissan if you have to.

Knock on wood the tilt and telescopic motors for the steering wheel still work on my 1993 Q45.

My wife's Murano is suffering from the same symptoms. Her seat will also not return to the memory position and the steering wheel motors click like the gears are stripped. The mileage is at 40,500 miles, but we purchased an extended warranty. I am getting ready to take it to the dealer for inspection. I will let you know how my visit to the dealer for repair turns out.

Same thing here - we just spent $500 on getting our 09 Murano tilt steering motor replaced. Not because the motor was bad, but the gears/teeth were stripped, but had to be replaced as an entire unit. Out of warranty, so this is our cost. I will be contacting Nissan in the next day to find out what they should do. Also found out Nissan has issued a Technical Service Bulletin for this. Number is ST 09-004 - this tells the service people how to fix the problem if a vehicle is brought in. Seems like this is becoming more and more common.

My wife had the same problem on her Murano. We got lucky though, the car was still well under warr. After it was fixed we changed the settings so that the column would not stow and extend every time the ignition cycled. I think I might have caused the failure by pulling myself out of the vehicle using the wheel while it was going to stow. Hopefully Nissan will see that this is major problem. When it happened on our car, I continued to move the column to the extreme down position thinking it might re-set. That was a huge mistake in that the wheel was stuck in the extreme down position which made it un-safe to drive. We got lucky, it broke early in ownership. Good luck to all who suffer from this defect and don't do like me and pull yourself out by the wheel.

W

I was going to ask if you were using it a lot in order for this failure to occur. I forgot about the auto steering wheel
retraction that I turned off when I got the car. It is not surprising that it would fail with it being used every time you
start the engine.

There is a TSB on this - NTB09-073. I had mine replaced under extended warranty at 41k.

I found part # 48990-1LB6B on http://www.nissanpartszone.com for $166, which should work to fix my 2009 LE. That's the best I could find. I wish they would just sell the gears, and not the motor. The motor comes off with 3 screws, and is not necessary to change. My broken one has a very poorly designed nylon gear that has broken. Most likely due to pressure from grabbing the steering wheel while getting in/out of the car. This should be a $20 part that does not include replacing a perfectly good motor. What a ripoff...

I'm tempted to take the gear off the telescoping assembly and put it in the tilt. I don't use that much anyway, and I'm not sure it runs with the presets. It looks a little difficult to pull that gear out, but might be worth it to get me by until somebody makes an aftermarket part that actually works. Anyone tried that yet?

Our 09'LE MO had this problem but we were warranted for it.
The steering column came down and stayed there.

We have a 2009 Nissan Murano LE with 38000 miles, 2000 miles past the warranty. The dealer claims the funny noise in the steering column is from 2 bad motors, one for the telescoping and one for the tilting feature. Nissan would not budge on a goodwill offer, not even a partial. We bought this SUV new due to it's high rating by Consumer Reports, now my confidence level is much lower after this problem. Unfortunately, I may never buy another Nissan product. My dealer is equally as disappointed as I canceled my order for another new Murano. Current cost to fix this problem is now over $600 on the LE model. Make sure you get your Murano into the dealer before your warranty runs out and mention this for your own protection - especially when your warranty run out like ours did!

I don't know what's required to do a recall but they really need to put this on recall.

If you need a reason why that part would put you in danger,
It would probably crush your legs, and would be very hard to steer.

My 2009 LE steering column motors both went out. I do not even have 21K miles on the car. It's going to cost roughly $550 to get them replaced. My 3 year warranty expired in May. We are waiting on a call back from Corporate to see what they will do. I was considering a new one but now I'm not so sure. I've driven Nissans since they were still Datsun. This is very disappointing.

It happened again! Our steering motor went out for the second time. Even after we turned off the automatic stow option. Now we are waaaaaay out of warranty. What a piece of crap assembly Nissan has built. How is possible that ours failed early enough for it to be replaced for free, only to break again. What makes me really pissed, is that clearly this is a problem affecting many customers, yet there is no recall for it. Screw Nissan...I used swear by them, but ever since we bought this Murano, brand new in 2009, its been problem after problem. Not only that, their dealerships have horrible product knowledge and their mechanics are idiots. I will NEVER buy another Nissan product again. They can stick it......

W

There is a Nissan TSB for this. We just had one in the shop the other day. Should be under warranty.

wbohannon wrote:It happened again! Our steering motor went out for the second time. Even after we turned off the automatic stow option. Now we are waaaaaay out of warranty. What a piece of crap assembly Nissan has built. How is possible that ours failed early enough for it to be replaced for free, only to break again. What makes me really pissed, is that clearly this is a problem affecting many customers, yet there is no recall for it. Screw Nissan...I used swear by them, but ever since we bought this Murano, brand new in 2009, its been problem after problem. Not only that, their dealerships have horrible product knowledge and their mechanics are idiots. I will NEVER buy another Nissan product again. They can stick it......

W

Not all Nissan mechanics are idiots, thank you. There is a TSB on this and it should be under warranty. If you have had it replaced already there are parts warranties for parts that have already been replaced.

lcarder wrote:I found part # 48990-1LB6B on http://www.nissanpartszone.com for $166, which should work to fix my 2009 LE. That's the best I could find. I wish they would just sell the gears, and not the motor. The motor comes off with 3 screws, and is not necessary to change. My broken one has a very poorly designed nylon gear that has broken. Most likely due to pressure from grabbing the steering wheel while getting in/out of the car. This should be a $20 part that does not include replacing a perfectly good motor. What a ripoff...

I'm tempted to take the gear off the telescoping assembly and put it in the tilt. I don't use that much anyway, and I'm not sure it runs with the presets. It looks a little difficult to pull that gear out, but might be worth it to get me by until somebody makes an aftermarket part that actually works. Anyone tried that yet?

Do you have any pictures of the installation you did to replace this motor? I am interested to see the broken gear specifically. Thanks for your help!!

ntech1989 wrote:There is a Nissan TSB for this. We just had one in the shop the other day. Should be under warranty.

Are you saying that even though my 2009 Murano is out of warranty, this repair should be covered under warranty due to the existence of a TSB pertaining to this problem? I just want to be sure before I discuss this with the Service Manager at the dealership.

Thanks.

I am very interested in your answer too, as my motor has just failed and I was doing a little research before I called the dealer to set up service and have had spotty luck in the past with the dealership. I also found the technical service bulletin, but figured that was just how to fix the problem and that I was still on the hook for parts and labor.

ntech1989 wrote:

wbohannon wrote:It happened again! Our steering motor went out for the second time. Even after we turned off the automatic stow option. Now we are waaaaaay out of warranty. What a piece of crap assembly Nissan has built. How is possible that ours failed early enough for it to be replaced for free, only to break again. What makes me really pissed, is that clearly this is a problem affecting many customers, yet there is no recall for it. Screw Nissan...I used swear by them, but ever since we bought this Murano, brand new in 2009, its been problem after problem. Not only that, their dealerships have horrible product knowledge and their mechanics are idiots. I will NEVER buy another Nissan product again. They can stick it......

W

Not all Nissan mechanics are idiots, thank you. There is a TSB on this and it should be under warranty. If you have had it replaced already there are parts warranties for parts that have already been replaced.

Well, here we go again. Another wheel tilt/telescope failure on my wife's Murano...I didn't say "all" Nissan mechanics are idiots, I was specifically referring to everyone I have come into contact with, thank you. There should be a recall, not a TSB. This steering wheel issue is bad on an engineering level. The way it affects the safety of the vehicle is unacceptable. It has failed again, for the third time, after we have taken every effort to minimize its use. Having this function marketed to us, along with others, contributed to our choice in buying this car. It had a convenience package which included a programmable, moving steering wheel. This time, the dealership is expecting us to pay for the labor and replacement of a faulty part. Now what is likely to happen? The tech will install another plastic crap part, tearing up the steering column and the interior of the car, just like they have every other time they got their hands on the damn vehicle. They don't care, its not their sh*t. They just gotta beat their flat rate, so they can get on to trashing another car. We have to figure out rides, how to get the car dropped off and picked up. Oh yeah, and my wife uses her car for work, so now its affecting her job. All to be pretty confident that it will happen again, because the assembly is junk, but Nissan wont do the right thing, and take care of the problem properly. I guess maybe they don't know what that is, but I bet they have changed that design. If they didn't, then they really are idiots. Anyway, if this is happening to you, and your beyond warranty, get ready to bend over and take it.

w

Stockpiece wrote:

lcarder wrote:I found part # 48990-1LB6B on http://www.nissanpartszone.com for $166, which should work to fix my 2009 LE. That's the best I could find. I wish they would just sell the gears, and not the motor. The motor comes off with 3 screws, and is not necessary to change. My broken one has a very poorly designed nylon gear that has broken. Most likely due to pressure from grabbing the steering wheel while getting in/out of the car. This should be a $20 part that does not include replacing a perfectly good motor. What a ripoff...

I'm tempted to take the gear off the telescoping assembly and put it in the tilt. I don't use that much anyway, and I'm not sure it runs with the presets. It looks a little difficult to pull that gear out, but might be worth it to get me by until somebody makes an aftermarket part that actually works. Anyone tried that yet?

Do you have any pictures of the installation you did to replace this motor? I am interested to see the broken gear specifically. Thanks for your help!!

Sorry, I did not take pictures. I set the column where I wanted it, and unplugged the motor so it would no longer grind. Of course, I can no longer adjust it either. I'm still searching for a descent after market product to replace this, but have not found one yet. I will add pictures once I replace the bad part.

HEY nTECH - IS IT POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO REPLACE THIS MOTOR & GEAR SET WITH A MANUAL TILT OPTION FROM THE LOWEST MODEL OF MURANO'S to save money and time in the future?

Add another one to the list. Our 2009 Nissan Murano LE just started having the same problem described here with the steering column tilt motor. I took it to the dealer who recommends replacing both the tilt and telescoping motor for a cost of $750. No help from Nissan as we are beyond the warranty miles at about 45,000 miles. This is our first problem with a vehicle that we have otherwise been thrilled with. Hopefully it is not a sign of things to come as the mileage runs up.

One thing that no doubt contributes to premature failure of the motor/gears (at least I consider it premature) is the frequency of use. The wheel tilts and retracts with every entrance and exit of the vehicle. Although convenient while it's working, disabling it would probably extend the life of the motor assembly. That's just what I have done for the time being while deciding when/if to spring for the fix.

For what it's worth, I asked the Service Manager about disabling the auto tilt feature and he said he didn't know if it could be done. After disappearing for a few minutes to check on it, he returned and told me that someone said it might be possible. Not much help. With a little poking around I was able to find the option later myself. From the center console, select Settings -- Comfort & Conv. -- Auto tilt on entrance/exit. You may have to scroll down to the 2nd page to find this option and then turn it off. Depending on the amount of wear you've had on the gears, you can then adjust the steering wheel to a comfortable position you're happy living with absent the automatic adjustment on entry/exit.

Steering motor on 2009 Murano went out today. 43k miles. Also, disabled In settings.

It's from pulling yourself out of the car when the motor is moving. I did it. I know exactly how I did it. in 2012, on a 2009 LE.

My wife cried, and whimpered. She bought the extended warranty with $0 deductable on a certified pre-owned. She told them she bought that warranty so she didn't have to worry about stupid crap like that. New cars and all their hi tech s*** break.

Send a woman, and let the water-works flow!

100% covered!

Yes AUTO-TILT can be disabled! Meaning, it wont move when you get in an out. But will still work when you use the "joystick"

My wife did it. Either look in the manual, or Google.

Thanks for your postings on this issue. Mine just went out today. Great suggestion on turning off the "auto tilt" until I can get it fixed...or fix it myself.