Intermittent Starting/Steering Lock Fault

**billy187** · 21-03-2013,08:59 PM

Hi guys,

I have a intermittent starting fault.

Occasionally (once every week or so) when i go to start the car all the dash lights will just go crazy and start flashing oddly, some times it will start but then the glow plug light will start flashing and it will just cut out straight away. On the occasions that all the lights flash, i get different messages on the MFD display, sometimes "Immobiliser Active", sometimes "Steering Lock Fault" etc.

Now if i just take the key out for a few minutes and then go back to it will be fine and no problems. Its been doing this for 6 months or so now, sometimes it can do it more often and others not doing it for over a month.

Id like to get it sorted now though, anyone know what it is and how much its going to cost me?

Heres a video i took today as i was waiting:

**patomlin76** · 21-03-2013,10:34 PM

Hi,

I've had a problem once or twice the same as yours and took advice on this forum.

The immobiliser active fault is actually different to the steering lock - it occurs if the key slot is having difficulty reading the key, so either faulty key or faulty key socket. This has happened to me twice in 4 months, but is hardly regular so I am not worrying about it.

The steering lock fault is another matter. A great piece of advice I have had here is to be patient when starting the car. So let the yellow steering light go out, then let the red steering light go out before pushing the key in. If the mechanism is getting worn it may have difficulty keeping up with you slotting the key in quickly. The two times I have had the steering lock message and loud beeps have been when I've pushed the key in too fast.

I've never had the flickering warning lights I see in your video, neither the 'move steering wheel' message, so yours may be near the end of its life.

Because in my case this is not under a warranty, I'd prefer to take a few seconds less starting the car than spending the £350 at a dealer to have the steering lock altered. That is the cost you'll be looking at if it goes completely, so although unwelcome, not a massive cost.

**martin1810** · 22-03-2013,08:20 AM

It will probably get a little better as the weather warms up so if you can wait and start saving up if you want. DIY repair link is on my site but it is not a simple fix.

**billy187** · 23-03-2013,09:56 PM

Will this fault eventually stop me from being able to start the car completely? Bit risky but if so could possibly wait and then use my AA parts and labour cover to cover the cost?

**martin1810** · 24-03-2013,07:16 AM

Originally Posted by billy187

Will this fault eventually stop me from being able to start the car completely? Bit risky but if so could possibly wait and then use my AA parts and labour cover to cover the cost?

It may eventually refuse to start completely. Most people give up before that point because the issure is driving them crazy.

**zilspeed** · 30-03-2013,11:34 PM

Having had this issue for around 6 months, mine eventually refused to start one morning. I did the sensible thing and read the instructions in here for steering column removal. This took about an hour. Opening the duct to get the wiring out of the column was the longest bit, so be careful there.

As part of the process, I decided to investigate what actually goes wrong with the microswitch and I believe I got to the bottom of what actually goes wrong.

With the switch open as it would be with the steering column on, the resistance is infinity as it should be. The switch is open.
With the switch fully depressed, the resistance goes to zero. Again, exactly as it should do.

Now.

With the steering lock fully assembled but with the lock in the off position, the switch does not sit in the fully closed position, it sits some way short of that. Theoretically, if the switch is in any way closed, resistance will be zero. In my case it did go to zero, but then resistance went high again as it went to its normal resting place. 20 ohms in my case.

This makes sense.
In it's usual place, the contacts have accumulated grime and burnt in residues leading to the high resistance.

Using contact cleaner, I cleaned the switch up and eventually ended up with zero ohms the full way.

I then reassembled the lock, installed it back onto the column, fitted the column to the car and everything works 100 % again.

Cleaning the switch and getting the resistance to be zero over the whole travel of the switch was all I did.

I did actually buy some switches from RS components, but having seen them, I wouldn't dream of trying to fit it myself. They're tiny.

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I know I've been a bit long winded here, but I think it's important.
In my case and I suspect many others, it's basically this switch needing cleaned that is the issue.

If you're stripping the column down to do the fix, do yourself a favour and use a multimeter to ensure that the switch either does infinite rsistance when open or zero resistance when closed. If it goes high at any point of its travel after the click, you need to get rid of that.

That's all I did and it's now 100%.

**martin1810** · 31-03-2013,07:26 AM

Can you provide a link to the RS switches because the manufacturers say they don't sell them. Are they the correct switch or a mirror image?

**zilspeed** · 31-03-2013,09:17 AM

Martin
it's the opposite hand switch, the same as everyone elses has found.

I didn't expect to better the findings of all of you guys who had gone before me.
I had expected to use these, hot glued into position, like othes had done.

What I hadn't expected was how small they are. That's why I took a pic of one for scale.
Jusy to let othes know what they'd be taking on.

When mine worked ok with a considered apptoach to the switch cleaning, I was happy to leave the new switches just now.
should I need to replace the switches, I'll take the board to either a tv repairman or a guitar amp repair to get them to swap out the switch.

Component level repair at this scale would be worth 30 mins of an expert's time for me.

**martin1810** · 31-03-2013,10:27 AM

They are actually easy to swap. The problem is fixing them down with the pegs on the new switch being on the wrong side. Nice to know RS are doing them. It cost me a fortune and lots of hassle to import mine originally. Had I known how much import grief I was going to get, I wouldn't have bothered.

**zilspeed** · 05-05-2014,10:13 PM

15 months since my last post and it's back with a vengeance.
Car started fine this morning as every other morning.
Drove it around doing stuff as usual.

Stopped at the shops, went in to get some stuff and lo and behold, when we came back out the car was utterly dead.

The car unlocks as it should, the odometer shows a reading at this point, but when you put the key in the ignition and press it into the usual position for turning on the ignition, nothing, nada. Not a jot. Tried all the usual malarky, but the steering column is not even thinking of unlocking.

I guess it's time to get the steering column back out again then.