Steering Column Mod - Quick, Effective and Cheap!

[somersetdub 0]

Hi all, just wanted to share a little mod I carried out on my vr6 earlier, to cure the up/down movement from the play in the adjuster.

I know a lot of people simply replace the column for a fixed one, but I think this mod could save the hassle and expense.

I apologise for only the 'after' photos, but I only thought about putting it on here after I'd done it.

 

Basically I removed the large spring which is supposed to keep the column taut when adjusting it and replaced it with a long bolt, along with a penny washer and nut. This was possible after removing the lower dash panel and drilling a 6mm hole in the domed area which would have been in the centre of the spring.

A picture tells a thousand words so they say, so here's a couple; hopefully they show clearly what I have done:

[somersetdub 0]

The play I had in my column has completely gone now and the car feels much nicer to drive...

Obviously the column is now fixed, but all you need to do is set where you want it before tightening the nut.

[sexybourbon 0]

Great idea that ill be doin that then as mine has a fair bit of play up and down

[Stonejag 10]

Hah, clever! Nothing stopping you putting the spring back afterwards either.

 

One concern though - if the column is supposed to be adjustable, does your MOT require it to actually be adjustable? If not I might have a crack at this at the weekend :)

 

Stone

[somersetdub 0]

I can't see it being a problem for MOT, I would think the sloppy up/down movement would/should be more of an issue! It's completely reversible anyway.

I have just been out for another drive and the difference in how the steering feels is surprising, so much sloppiness has vanished. :-)

[goozie 0]

very good idea and alot cheaper than replacing the column, the only thing that i might suggest is that you use a locknut as the last thing you would want is it to loosen off whilst you was driving!!

[Chrisvw419 0]

Regarding MOT, mine was done last Friday and they picked up on the play in the steering column and marked it down as not fixing in position and failed it.

 

When I first got the car it had a bit of play but when the lever was pulled you could fix it down lower with no play.

Come the MOT the adjustment lever would not operate, when it failed the MOT I was worried I would have to replace the whole thing but when I removed the cowling, I noticed a 'split pin' hanging about 10mm out of the assembly. On further inspection I found that this was the pin that locked the column in place. Well mine had slipped out and found its way behind the mechanism. I pulled the pin all the way out, pulled the column fully down replaced the pin and voila fully adjustable and no play at all. Took 5 minutes.

Just something to check before replacing the entire column.

 

Great idea though.

[somersetdub 0]

very good idea and alot cheaper than replacing the column, the only thing that i might suggest is that you use a locknut as the last thing you would want is it to loosen off whilst you was driving!!

 

I used a spot of Loctite ;-)

But even if it were to loosen, it would only bring back the up/down play that was there before, nothing more.

[emu 0]

Noticed a quiet big play in my one do have to think about foxing it. Your idea is very good.

[somersetdub 0]

Anyone tried this yet?

[stevef182 0]

Nice! Will give this a go!

[CazzaVR 0]

I'll give this a go too- cracking idea and saves so much hassle.

[blaarado 0]

ya legend, gona do this tomorrow

[Dox 22]

Did you do anything to stop the bolt chaffing the wiring?

 

Nice work BTW

[somersetdub 0]

No need, as neither the bolt or the wiring moves at all. Obviously you could though if you were concerned about it.

 

Cheers

[ProdigalSon 1]

So, my C failed its MOT due to excess play in the steering column (up & down), but CazzaVR pointed me at this topic :thumbleft: so I got down to B&Q and bought some M6 x 100 bolts, M6 nuts and a coupla different size washers, and tried it out...

 

 

Here's the steering column underside with cowling and steering wheel removed, you can see the tensioning spring to the lower left:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60673[/ATTACH]

 

Side on it looks like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60677[/ATTACH]

 

And here's how I took it out with a couple of pairs of molegrips (not sure how much compression it was under)!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60681[/ATTACH]

 

So now you can see the 'dome' that the far end of the spring sat on - this needs drilling to get your bolt through:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60685[/ATTACH]

 

To get a good start, I holepunched the middle of the dome, which also shows the path of the drillbit later:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60689[/ATTACH]

 

But that was a bit too close to the wiring, so I disconnected it and pulled it under the column and to the right (and also removed the column adjustment lever and the top cowling):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60693[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]60697[/ATTACH]

 

When I first tried to drill the 6mm hole in the dome, I realised that the black plastic of the stalk switch housing would foul, so I moved them out of the way too:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60701[/ATTACH]

 

The hole was pretty tricky to drill and it made a LOT of swarf, so make sure you cover ALL of the switches and connectors, and either lay down some rags or be ready to bin your drivers mat afterwards! Having drilled the hole I cleaned up the edges with a Dremel and set the column at the right angle for me, as it will effectively be permanently set unless I want to undo all the nuts etc. to adjust the angle at a later date (unlikely!)

 

I went for double nuts on both sides of both the pieces of metal that the bolt goes through, so that none of the nuts would slip (they are modestly tightened against their neighbours) and that the bolt would brace the column both up (in tension) and down (in compression). Yeah, it is belt and braces, but don't want to have to adjust it again, just set and forget:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60705[/ATTACH]

 

In this pic you can see the two larger (repair) washers at the front (right of pic) where the large hole is, and two regular M6 washers at the rear (left of pic) where there's a neat-ish 6mm hole, and double nuts to brace the bolt properly and prevent each other from loosening:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60709[/ATTACH]

 

I trimmed the last 15-20mm from the bolt (after I took these pics) so that I could get the lower cowling back on properly, so an M6 x 80mm bolt would be ideal.

 

Parts:

1 off M6 x 80mm bolt ideally

2 off 6-32mm repair washers

2 off M6 washer

6 off M6 nut

 

Labour:

About 2 hours start to finish, with a bit of faff as I worked out where the steering wheel should be so that it was level when driving in a straight line!

 

Result:

WAY better, really solid, only slight up/down movement is due to the column moving the mounting point on the chassis!

 

Hopefully that'll be an MOT pass now... Thanks for the idea somersetdub! :salute:

Edited April 25, 2012 by ProdigalSon
being a pedant

[somersetdub 0]

Nice write up!

Glad the idea has been of use to someone else, I couldn't believe the difference it made when I first tried it.

I like the idea of having nuts in between to fix it further still, I shall probably revisit mine sometime as I did it using a few bits I had lying around rather than shopping for specific sized bolts etc.

With your step by step guide, this little mod is made even easier to carry out!

 

Cheers :-)

[boost monkey 0]

I'll probably start selling these kits with an endorsement for only £50 :norty:

[ProdigalSon 1]

It passed the MOT retest (unsurprisingly, as that bolt could probably hold the entire weight of ther car) so I'm happy ;)

 

Thanks again to somersetdub and CazzaVR :thumbleft:

[24V Renshaw 0]

Did this today. Worked really well.

Just for a tip, drill the hole from the back, all you have to do is remove the dashboard undertray and you have easy access to drill the 6mm hole.

 

Jay

[somersetdub 0]

Did this today. Worked really well.

Just for a tip, drill the hole from the back, all you have to do is remove the dashboard undertray and you have easy access to drill the 6mm hole.

 

Jay

 

That is exactly what I did :-)

[Smiithy 10]

May give this a blast :) good write up!

[Dox 22]

Should this be a sticky?

[7onny 0]

Just done this today. Much better now! Cheers guys!

[VAG-hag 0]

I'll be having a stab at this. Thanks :)