ringooo

Background:
97 civic hatch CX manual

My car got broken into last night... the thief did not take the car or anything in it. However, the wheels on the car aren't responding to the steering wheel like they should.

The car can only turn to the right. The steering wheel can spin about 1.5, maybe 2 times. The wheels can turn SLIGHTLY, but are always stuck in a position where they are going to turn to the RIGHT, this means that I could tweak the wheels enough to get out of my parallel parking spot so that I could get towed ($250 to get it back to my house 50 miles away)

Anyway, this is where it gets interesting: I always put my breathalyzer under the driver's seat everytime I get out of the car. I'm sure this is what saved my little honda from the hands of the thief. The breathalyzer was still under the seat when I found my car with the steering column ripped apart. (AKA he didn't know WTF was keeping the car from starting)

My question to you all is: I'm looking at getting a replacement wheel interlock as I seem to think this is the problem... (the wheels have minimal movement, and the steering wheel doesn't have a full range of motion). I think that this is the problem because if you ever turn your steering wheel without the key in, the steering wheel locks up and so do the wheels. Well I think they broke the steering wheel and the breathalyzer is maintaining that steering wheel interlock (?) is this a correct assessment?

The replacement part is ~$100 online.. I'm about to purchase it.. just would like clarification that this is indeed at the heart of the problem.

PS. When I say interlock I'm referring to the wheel lock that occurs when no key is put in the ignition and one attempts to turn the wheel.

I only used "breathalyzer" when referring to.. you know.

If anyone could chime in any helpful bits of info I'd greatly appreciate it..

thumper64

breathalyzer as in the thing they install in your car when you get a DUI? In that case, maybe drinking and driving wasn't completely bad, but it was still stupid! Sorry, but I have a strong hatred for people who drink and drive or mess with their cell phone in any way while driving.

You can replace the whole column or just that switch section fairly easy with one from a junkyard and then swap your old key tumbler in so you don't need 2 keys for the car.

ringooo

Thanks for the criticism..

but I came here for help.. and here's a couple pics to show what I'm talking about and what I think the guy tried to do...



This pic shows the ignition switch and where it was torn out from..



there is a sharp edge on the outer sleeve now from where the ignition switch was ripped out.



It looks like they tried putting their own ignition on...

I don't know how they didn't get away.. (well, the steering IS completely F'd, but they were trying to steal the car.. so wtf did they do wrong?) There is a grinding noise when I steer the wheel toward the right (I think it's the inner rod grinding on that outer sleeve as shown in pic 2.. I'm just wondering how much I'm going to have to replace because I know that grinding isn't supposed to be there.