DIY: Sticking Steering Column Lock Fix

Below are instructions to disassemble your steering column and grease

the steering column lock mechanism to prevent sticking on startup/
shutdown as is a common problem with these mechanisms. For cars in
the US, 06 MY E90s are affected; locking columns are replaced with nonlocking columns at no charge under warranty (Service Bulletin SI B32 07
06). Outside the US, the range of affected cars is much wider.

I have read that aftermarket batteries can lead to these problems as

such a battery provides a lesser voltage to the mechanism, leading it to
stick (or not go to completion), leading to an error and not allowing you
to start the car. My car has an aftermarket interstate battery (purchased
it this way), which will be replaced with an OEM one in the near future, if
you are due for a new battery, hold off on this procedure until you
replace it--and of course post results below!

This is my first DIY, so be gentle !

I was largely motivated to do this
DIY as I just found out how embarrassing it is to offer a girl a ride in my
car and not have it start for a minute because of this stupid lock !
Anyway, onto my experience (with the car, of course ! ):

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Step 1 - Tools Used
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Nothing special, you need a standard ratchet, E10 external torx socket
for the column bolts, and I highly suggest a T10 torx ratchet as it is ideal
for the pinch bolt. I used a craftsman 5/16" all-purpose (incl. torx)
ratchet. I used a dremel and flathead to remove the security bolts from
the lock cover, didn't find another way to do this unless you want to
order a bit/bit set online.

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(will be updated in near future, didn't take a pic of these)
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Step 2 - Set up good lighting to the steering column area
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Step 3 - Move seat back all the way
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Step 4 - Disconnect negative battery terminal in trunk
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Step 5 - Remove steering wheel airbag - Feel for a pin towards the
rear of the steering wheel and push it towards the center of the wheel,
this will release one side of the airbag at a time. Refer here for help

Step 6 - Disconnect airbag and MF/paddle harness, remove

steering wheel by removing center bolt

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Step 7 - Remove lower steering column shroud
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Use a small flathead to gently push out the bottom half of the shroud,
near the edge. It should pop out with a little force. Next, repeat for the
other side. Once both sides are popped, release the column adjustment
lever and raise and extend the column. Bottom part of shroud should
easily come out.

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Step 8 - Unscrew the lower kick panel
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There should be 3 torx bolts as pictured, as well as one just in front of

the brake pedal (my car was missing this one !

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Step 9 - Remove the lower kick panel
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Disconnect the speaker, footwell light, bluetooth antenna (front left), and
the 4th module. The bluetooth antenna, I couldn't find a simple way to
disconnect it so just removed the entire thing. Once these 4 units are
disconnected, the kick panel can be easily removed.

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Step 10 - Remove the rubber steering column shaft boot
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Step 11 - Jack up front left wheel and turn wheel approximately

5 degrees

This is done to make the steering column shaft pinch bolt (exposed in
step 10) accessible for easy removal. As seen above, when first exposed,
it's difficult to remove, there's almost no space (forget about engine bay,
tried that route, even less *******. By turning the wheel physically, you
rotate this pinch bolt. Below are original wheel position, final wheel
position, and final pinch bolt position.

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Step 12 - Remove pinch bolt
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Be careful not to drop it behind the firewall!!! If you do so, you'll need to
remove most of the left-side plastic underside shield to reach in and grab
it.

Last edited by yakev724; 04-10-2011 at 11:45 PM.

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Step 13 - Remove clock spring connectors
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Remove the 2 connectors just behind and to the right of the clock spring,
the outermost one requires you to rotate a lever 90 degrees, don't force
anything.

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Step 14 - Remove steering column bolts
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Remove the 4 E10 External torx bolts from the top of the steering
column. Make sure to the support the column once you get to removing
the last 2, it is rather light but be careful not to damage any plastic trim.

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Step 15 - Remove steering column lock connector
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Located on the left side of the column, about halfway down. Be careful
not to break the connector as I did by accident.

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Step 16 - Remove 2 wire harness clips along column
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Step 17 - Remove steering column
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Last edited by yakev724; 02-01-2011 at 01:08 AM.

Step 18 - Remove 3 "Torx Plus Security" Bolts

Note that these are 5 pointed! Individual bits are sold on eBay, as well as
sets online, but I decided to dremel these out as I wasn't about to order
an expensive bit set and wait for it to ship in. Below are photos of how I
dremeled them out. If you go this route--few pointers: Use glasses so
you don't get sparks in your eyes. Be careful not to dremel too deep so
you don't break the head of the screw. There is very limited space, so
use the column adjustment lever to slide it around the locking
mechanism "box" to provide the most space. Attack each bolt with the
best angle to dremel out a nice groove for a flathead. The one screw is
simple, for the 2 adjacent ones, I had to dremel as close to the plastic
cover as possible without touching it for best effect. On the second of the
2, I made a small foil cover to protect the plastic from sparks. The
screws aren't on very tight--they can probably be unscrewed with the
ideal pliers or ideal flathead size screwdriver to fit between the ridges in
the original screws.

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Step 19 - Remove plastic cover and mechanism
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Entire mechanism will simply slide out once cover is removed
!

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Step 20 - Unclip mechanism housing and dissassemble
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All parts are clipped in, pretty easy to take apart and reassemble, below
is photo of all parts

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Step 21 - Clean, lubricate and assemble
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I used rubbing alcohol to clean everything out, then used grey polylithium grease on the motor gear (as well as big plastic gear it locks
into), then white spray CRC lithium grease on everything else.

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Results
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Upon assembly, I can't say anything changed. After playing with the
mechanism for about 10 minutes, however, it moved to completion about
90% of the time. 2 days after completing this, mechanism works almost
flawlessly and has worked this way since.

Additional photos of physical lock in steering column (electronic

mechanism moves this). This can't be easily removed, if I can have my
car coded to ignore the steering lock, I'll remove my column and drill this
out to remove it permanently.

Locked

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Unlocked
!

Last edited by yakev724; 02-01-2011 at 07:12 PM.

Update 1
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From having the mechanism apart, it's pretty clear that it can be
disabled very easily--by either physically leaving the lock in the open
position or by disconnecting the lock circuit from it's cable. Neither of
these are a solution, as the car will recognize that the mechanism hasn't
gone to completion and will show the lock error.

In the near future, I will try to see if I can have my car coded in the
same way as if the column was replaced with one without a locking
mechanism (as BMW did in their SIB). Before coding, lock will obviously
need to be in the open position so column isn't permanently locked. This
will likely work, but to be 100% sure it will never lock, I'll then reopen
the column and remove the lock itself for the last time. I'll update the
thread if I get this to work, it would be a nice permanent solution.

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Update 2
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Bentley manual shows that the lock is wired directly to the Car Access
System (CAS).

2 Lines in the CAS TRC Code seem responsible for the lock--makes sense
that there would be one signal for full engaging and one for full
disengaging:

ELV_AUT_FCT
nicht_aktiv
ELV_RESET_FCT
nicht_aktiv

ELV_TESTER
nicht_aktiv