Broken Plastic in steering column?

[Andy Szkutak]

Well i was drivin along today, and i made a sharp left turn, and i hear like the sound of plastic breaking inside the steering column... i look at the part wehere the wheel meets the fixed part of the column, and theres a piece of broken loose plastic in the gap, but i cant get it out without takin the cover off..when i make turns now, its very hard to do, and the wheel wont turn hardly at all. any idea what this could be? and how do i take the cover off the steerin column? just screws right?



thanks

andy

 

[Todd Z]

The plastic piece is probably is the tabs that align the pieces... The plastic has 2 screw's from what i can remember and some clips

Todd Z

 

[Kevin Palmer]

You need to get it off if for no other reason than for safety. Remove it until you get the new part. Not worth having an accident over some fairly cheap plastic part...

 

[nick weaver]

same thing happened 2 me then every turn i would take plastic pieces would fall at my feet...that was a while ago, never figured out wut it was because it stopped making sounds and im just too lazy to deal with it haha

 

[Dre L]

I think this just happened to me. Steering isn't affected, I might open it up if it warms up one of these days, otherwise I'm going nick's route and saying F' it.



It is a scary sound like you're cracking walnuts when you make a turn though.



Did I mention that I hate when a manufacturer uses plastic where a nice piece of metal would make more sense?



Did you know that your taillights have no threads in the screw holes, and that the screws are self-tapping? I found out when I had to replace one because the screw holes disintegrated.



Every time I find a plastic clip that I need to remove, i have that "oh $hit" feeling in the pit of my stomach.



PLASTICS HAVE THEIR PLACE, NOT AS FASTENERS.