TIGHTENING A LOOSE STEERING COLUMN IN A 9000

If your steering column seems to have excessive movement, or if it's telescopic and doesn't hold its position real well, you can adjust it to eliminate most of the play and tighten up the telescoping mechanism.

First, if its a telescoping column, release the tensioner handle and slide it all the way out. If not, just follow along, a bit harder to work with, but still doable. Remove the four screws in the column cover that come in from the bottom, two sheet metal screws and two machine screws. These will either be Phillips, or 20 and 25 Torx.

Remove the covers, they are also held together with tabs and you have to maneuver the lower one over the ignition switch. Now look in on the right side and you will see a 17 mm nut. On cars with telescoping wheels, this nut is at the end of the tensioning lever. If you patiently try with a 17 mm open end wrench, you can get on the 17 mm and tighten it. On telescoping column cars, you do not want to tighten this nut with the lever in the released position, Turn the lever to its tight position and snug the nut until the column do longer moves, but check to make sure you can still release it with the lever. On non telescoping columns, the nut attaches to a 17 mm bolt. You will have to hold the bolt to tighten the nut.

You can lube the sliding mechanism on a telescoping column with wheel bearing grease to make it smoother. You may be able to adjust a non telescoping column by loosening the 17 nut and bolt and slipping the column to your preferred position. Changing it again though will require removing the covers again. And care must be taken not to stretch or misroute the horn and SRS harness that run up the column.

Other things to check in the area are the pinch bolts further down that hold the column to the universal joint that attaches to the rack. These will be 13 mm nuts and bolts. Tighten them securely. Push the boot on the column where it exits the passenger compartment down a bit and put a little grease on the shaft to silence and squeaks from there. Pay attention to the cage of the column. This gold anodized metal honey comb is designed to crumble in a collision as a safety feature. I have seen them broken before, especially in cars with weak power steering racks that require extra steering effort. I have seen some successfully braised back together, others have required replacement. The cage is held with either 13 or 17 mm nuts to the dash cross member.

If there is wheel movement or clunking when turning and this area reveals no problems, check both the power steering rack bushings for wear or tightening. A worn inner or outer tie rod end can cause a clunk too. The outers are easily replaced. The inners are actually part of the rack and with today's Maval lifetime warranty replacement racks, it is often more cost effective to replace the whole rack rather than an inner tie rod end. Lower ball joints can give a similar feel. Jack the car up at the frame and test the ball joints for play. The mounting bolts at the top of the strut tower in the engine compartment can loosen as well and they should be tightened along with the undercarriage bolts at every service/oil change. At first, these will loosen a lot, but as time goes by and you keep tightening them, eventually they reach a point where they no longer get loose between oil changes, but still check them just in case.

Pay attention to the lower control arm bushings, they wear. A good way to check them is to watch the wheel as someone drives past you and applies the brakes in reverse. bad control arm bushings will make the whole wheel assembly jump when the brake is applied. Also, where the control arm mounts to the undercarriage, the nuts can loosen, make sure these are tight.

Finally, a point of a pop or creak on a 9000 when hitting bumps or braking is the two 30 torx on each side on the undercarriage extension that goes to the rear control arm bushing. These loosen, or corrode and make the noise. Often, on older cars, they are covered with undercoating and hard to see but easy to hear.