Steering wheel rubbing plastic housing

[Darthswan]

Good Evening,

I've been doing some research and can't find anything. We had a hot dat in Chicago, and when i came back to my car after a couple of hours to leave, I noticed a rubbing feeling as I turned the steering wheel. When I got back home, I noticed the top plastic piece on the steering wheel column was up. I tried to get it back on, but it only seems to close up when the steering wheel is in the up position.

I'm going to the shop on Monday, but has anyone else had this problem? Thanks in advance.

[Ilya]

Mine makes a rubbing like noise sometimes but I wonder if my issue is the clock spring inside and not the plastics. I haven't really investigated it.

[wideopn11]

Funny this topic came up; I actually had/have this issue. Our steering wheel holds preset positions which is awesome, but I got in the other day and heard this loud crack sound as the wheel came down into position. I had to remove the top and bottom cover only to find the telescoping mechanism had somehow got caught on the inside of the bottom cover and popped it loose. I haven't had time to really try to fix it yet but I was like how the F*ck did this even happen.

[M37xfan]

This is a known issue. I had a similar issue happen to me shortly after I got mine. Infiniti repaired it for free

[CRV_33]

You guys should post a photo when you get a chance

[dLat]

Yeah it would be nice to see a photo can't really picture in my head what's going on
How reliable are the y51's (m37/m56) in general?

[TLoc]

Mine was doing the same thing intermittantly at first then all the time. I will try to explain what I did to fix it. Snap the top cover back into place and raise the steering wheel. Look up under the steering column all the way down where it meets the dash. As you lower the steering column you will see a 3 inch long abou 1/2 inch deep tab at the base of the lower plastic steering shaft housing catching on a metal bracket in the dash. I think the top housing will just snap off. Then there are, I think, 4 screws holding the lower steering shaft cover on. Then you just have to unplug the wiring. I took it off and used a Dremel to cut the tab off flush with the rest of the bottom of that piece of plastic. Put it all back together and haven't had any more issues with it. Or you could take it to the dealer. I'm not near the car now. I may be able to get some pics tomorrow if my explanation is lacking clarity. I doubt this is the way the dealer fixes it but it worked.

[BlackCat81]

A steering column adjuster stop has come loose. It's a tab that slides with the column and limits column travel. When this happens the column goes all kattywhompus and does that.

[wideopn11]

Anyone know if this is covered outside of warranty? (which apparently mine expired not long ago)

[TLoc]

A steering column adjuster stop has come loose. It's a tab that slides with the column and limits column travel. When this happens the column goes all kattywhompus and does that.

That would make sense if the upper stop came loose it would let it raise up too far allowing that tab to come out too far at the bottom and get hung up on the way back in. I didn't see the stops when I was doing my minor surgery but I may see if I can find them.

[TLoc]

So I took the steering column apart again.

The right side of the lower dash beside your right knee will pop off by just gently pulling it and this will give you a little room to work.



If you tilt the wheel up and don at this point you will see the lower cover of the steering column catching on the metal bracket inside the dash.

There is one screw under the steering wheel on each side.



And one under the column. With the upper screws removed the top cover just pops off. After that you can wiggle the bottom one off and unplug the wire from the tilt/telescope control. As I took that off this time a green piece of plastic dropped out. I'm assuming it was part of the steering adjustment stop as it is roughly the same color as the other pieces of that assembly.

So here is the part that fell out.



Here is the steering adjustment.



I couldn't figure out how those went back to together. So I just cut the tab off the bottom of the steering column cover so it is shorter and no longer catches on the metal bracket. Compare this pic to yours and you will see where I cut it off at the bottom of the picture.



Anyway it works now and the cut is so far up under the dash if you did mess it up you would never see it. I guess I screwed up following the instructions to add a pic. Maybe a mod could help me out.

[Jfpq70]

@ Ilya- did you ever find the cause of your rubbing noise. I have the same on my QX70.

[JBHorne]

WOW! I just had this happen to me on Monday! One month out of warranty!

I'm going to send a link to this to my service adviser. I was quoted $1200 to fix. OUCH!

[M37owner]

Sounds like same thing I reported/fixed here :steering-wheel-won-t-turn-unless-column ... 11149.html