So I'm driving my 91 sedan around town when my steering column started to make this grinding noise just behind the steering wheel. It sort of squeaked a little every now and then but now it just feels bad like metal on metal. The car steers just fine but that god awful sound can't possibly be good.

My car has 381,000 kms.

What could this be? Nothing broke when this all happened. It just started grinding.

Thanks

 

Being in Canada.....do you have power steering?

 

There is a gold peice of metal on your combination switch that does infact touch the metal on your steering wheel inorder for your horn to ground. Mines makes the same noise so i bent it back alittle and no more noise

 

mine does same thing, i got a Grant GT aftermarket steering wheel/hub and it sounds like metal on plastic when i turn. i think its that part ALSCRX said or if its not that then its the part behind the wheel the Clam Cover part that hits the back of the wheel hub somehow , i was thinkin about maybe shaving it a lil just to be safe, bc u cant see it and it wouldnt hurt so im gonna try it


good luck

 

yes we have power steering in canada.

My grinding is definitely metal on metal and not plastic on metal. My steering wheel is not damaged in any nor have mis-aligned the steering colum cover or the little brass spring that makes the horn work.

I don't think I've ever heard of a steering colum going bad b/c of wear and tear. Seriously how much wear can occur in a steering column anyways when you consider that when driving the wheels is really only being turned so far?

Its almost the same resemblance of a bad bearing where the bearing is grinding away.

 

So I finally took the time to take the steering wheel off and such and it turned out that the wicked grinding noise that I was hearing was in fact the steering wheel rubbing on the turn signal/headlight/washer switch assembly. I didn't really have the time to closely examine exactly what part of the assembly was rubbing. I just replaced the switch assembly with one from an auto wrecker and lubed the plastic pieces with some lithium grease before assembly and after that the column/steering wheel was super quiet with absolutely no noise whatsoever.

Anyone else experience a similar problem? BTW it was not the little copper horn spring.

 

The copper peice is not a spring nor is it little.

Sounds like that was your problem for sure....but you didn't need to replace the combo switch!

Plastic on metal won't make the noise you decribed, So it was def metal on metal which is the horn contact that is held in place with a screw.

 

heres the weird thing....

when I removed the steering wheel the copper "tang" that joins the electrics from the column to the steering wheel was perfectly intact. No major wear compared to the one from the wrecker and the angle of which it was bent was the same too.

I personally thought it was the copper contact but I just ended up replacing the switch assembly (it was like 5 bucks from the junkyard) and all is good now.

Thanks for the pics though!