ive never had this happen to me b4 but this car has a loose steering wheel like the tilt is loose or something? i see theres a post on how to repair it but what are the chances i may need a new steering coulmn? and is this common among the f-bodys and how does it happen ? people using the wheel as anchorage to get out of the car??

 

If you mean when you pull on the wheel it tilts downwards like you had pulled the tilt lever but you didn't, my wheel does that too, not sure how to fix it.

 

I have had 3 gen 3s thay all did it I am sure it can be fixed I am curious how I never worried about it with me other cars but I would like this one done right so I was going to look into fixing it.

 

I took my entire steering column off, took it apart, and then put everything back together nice and tight. The column is now very tight. I don't pretend to know exactly what I am doing all the time, but sometimes I get lucky. So I suggest taking it apart and seeing if you can find a cause for the looseness and tighten it.

 

The bolts that hold the tilt mechanism together come loose over time. Its a pain to get at them, have to pull the pivot pins and pretty much everything else. Do a search, you'll find a lot of posts about it. Use loctite when you reassemble those bolts.

 

am i in danger of the steering wheel falling off or needing to replace the column?

 

No, its safe. It will not come off there, However, the mechanisms inside can start to wear prematurely and eventually you loose things like the ignition cylinder will start to malfunction and other interanl parts like the turn signal etc can break for the tilt column slopping about. You really should have it fixed to avoid future breaking of internal parts that will eventually lead to the column itself cracking and unfixable. A new steering column will set you back alot more than the aprox $60 to have a shop with the proper column jig get it apart and tighten things back up

There are four bolts in there that loosen, two of them easy to get to, one is somewaht troublsome, and the last is well, lets just say it is not fun.Late model GM tilt columns are notorious for this problem in all GM cars after about 10-15 years of good use.

 

My right turn signal switch broke... while replacing it is when I did all that.

 

it is a common problem as many people use the steering wheel to get in and out of the car
i took mine completely apart just to find that everything was tight but im also missing one of the tilt settings but mine dosnt go all overthe place like some do

 

i also heard something about bearings going bad?

 

one thing that sucks pretty bad is if your column gets real loose like my last Camaro the plug for the ignition stuff can come loose when you are turning and kill your ignition. mine the screws were loose and they had to change a bearing race that went bad. charged me $280 or a lttle more to fix it but it was because I didn't have time to fix it. could have done it myself for around $45 and after charging me out the a** they call me to pick it up and they put the fu**ing steering wheel upside down so I had to stop at AZ and buy a puller and fix it myself or wait another hour for them to get to it.

 

Yes, very common problem with tilt wheel. Most of time just loose bolts and the other are right,USE LOCKTITE !!!! Wheel is loose in every direction. Very fixable problem. You don't need a new colum, just take you time and be very patient. Sometimes it helps to take pictures of the switch and inners to help put everything back. If you do it or have someone else do it, USE LOCKTITE. I didn't the first time and it go loose again after a year or so.

 

my steering wheel only moves down and to the left sorta like a J do u think its just the bolts ? or something else?

 

just means you have one bolt still tight. same problem though.

 

the problem some have is when something is broken
like mine it dose not move freely it moves only under force

i checked my bolts all are very tight
but good example is i have to pull hard down on the wheel to turn on the hi beams


the loose bolt problem the wheel moves around freely sometimes side to side
or up and down depending on what bolt it is

 

mine also pulls down and to the left, if i have my ignition turned to accessory and i pull down on it then it shuts the accessories off. it hasn't turned the car off while its running though.

 

its the pin that connects the 2 parts of the tilt setup