2004 Range Rover Steering Column Problem

[jstrattwilson]

I bought the car recently. The guy told me he had problems with the steering tilt, and had replaced the tilt motor himself, but didn't plug it in because he lost the wire behind the dash. Yeh, right? When I took it to the dealer to have it fished out from behind the dask and have it plugged in ($125), they did it. The first time I used it (leaving the parking lot), the steering wheel dropped from the highest to the lowest position. Of course, I took it back. They inspected further, and showed me where the owner had tie strapped the steering wheel up because of a mechanical problem with the column. I saw the zip ties he used.

Ok, now they tell me the whole steering column will have to be replaced. I will "rig" something up if I have to, but I need to understand how the tilt mechanism works. Does anyone have a picture or any wise words?

 

[joey]

Wise words... if you bought it from a dealer... take it back.. if you bought it from just some guy. Remember the next time to pay for an inspection.

Call around to some breakers (junk yards) or Land Rover salvage techs and find a used one...

I would start with:

Will Tillery @ roveryguy.com
Nathan Crabtree @ discountbritishparts.com = boatbuggy @ aol.com

 

[jstrattwilson]

Bought it from an individual.

The local dealer says it is my problem, even though there is a service bulliten out on it. This is not a recall apparently.

My specific problem is not the motors, but 2 broken prongs that are designed to ride on the carrier of the worm screw for the tilt motor.

I have disassembled, and put it back together where the wheel is wedeged in it's full up position and unplugged the motor. Good for me, bad for my wife as she is shorter and likes it down.

Now to update the question.......does anyone know how to limit travel on the telescoping portion. Specifically, when the car is turned off, it seams like the steering wheel is being pulled too far into the dash, and that last 1/8 of an inch is causing the plastic shroud arong the steering column to slightly tilt. Is the adjustment mechanical or electronic? Better yet, can you turn the auto retract part of alltogether and just do it manually?

 

[joey]

I am sure this can be done via testbook or similar computer..

 

[Gb1083]

Steering column reach spindle nut

I had several issues with my 03 range Rover l322 steering column. Frankly it is an over mechanized POS in my opinion. To start the tilt motor sounded like it worked. I even removed it and tested it. It seemed to spin but when it had the wheel pressure on it it would not spin. So I replaced the motor and that fixed the problem. The 4 prongs casted into the housing to hold the tile spindel nut was damaged. 2 of the 4 prongs where broken. Only way to fix this is to install a new steering column which I purchased a used one and installed. The 3rd issue was that the reach spindel nut is manufactured out of pvc instead of brass which is used for the tilt spindel nut. Anybody with a common sense of mechanical engineering should know that you can not expect a steal acme thread to rotate through pvc without stripping out the threads. As a result you have 2 choices to fix this. Buy a used starting column to get a new pvc reach nut with no guarantee and pray that the new one isn't stripped out. But it could still strip out in the future, or buy our custom American made machines reach spindel nut. I have access to a machine shop and decided to manufacture an aftermarket reach spindle nut machined out of aluminum nickel bronze. Here is a link to my part to purchase.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281934199171?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Some people are asking what it takes to switch out the entire column. I did it from start to finish in 8 hours. Definitely not a fun project. Be very delicate with all the interior pieces and do not hammer on the end of the column in attempt to get it to insert into the spline at the fire wall. Also I did not need to remove the entire dash. Instead I removed the air vents and side trim, driver side dash bolts and just popped out our and pulled back for minimum clearance needed.

For those trying to figure out thread sizes. The reach and tilt spindel is a m10x1.5 trapezoidal metric screw thread. The female steering wheel bolt thread is a m14x1.5 trapezoidal metric as well.