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[DaveyDavey]

On the way into work this morning I heard a couple of clunking sounds when I was turning round a couple of corners. But the noises seemed to be coming from inside the car.

I slowed down anyway as a precaution and then a couple of minutes later whilst going round a small roundabout the steering locked tight. I crapped myself and yanked hard, there was a loud noise and it came free. As I was 5 minutes from parking up anyway I decided to carry on. This problem occured once more and a hefty tug freed it up again.

Thinking back, I did hear a similar clunking noise last night as I was parking outside my house. it was late and I had turned the TC off for a bit of rear out roundabout fun about a minute prior to that. But surely that couldn;t have affected the steering lock? Could it  :-/

Is the steering lock buggerd and will I need a new one?

[TheBoy]

You will need to physically investigate the column. Could be steering lock, or something else catching on it.

[DaveyDavey]

I shall have a look later on this afternoon  

[mantahatch]

Ooooh sounds nasty, I would also have a look under the car and under the bonnet to see if something has fallen off and is physically jamming the steering mechasism.

HTH

Mike

[Debs.]

TBH: I`d think carefully about driving it at all until you know what`s going on!

If it were I in your predicament; I`d call in at the first 'garage' (with ramps/inspection pit) I could find, just for a quick 'look-see' at the hubs/suspension/steering linkages.....well worth the couple of quid they`d (probably) charge, if only for the reassurance that what-ever is wrong isn`t going to rise up and bite you (or worse!)  

[JamesV6CDX]

Had this on a ford escort, nearly killed me (and the car I nearly hit).

Don't drive it under any circumstances.

[CBH]

Had this happen years ago on a Morris 1800 going round a mini round about and ending up heading for the door of a pub but stopped in time.
The problem was a broken spring in the steering lock, so the locking bar drop into the column slot.

[feeutfo]

dont like the sound of that. No experience what ever
Of this but from what you said i would look at the
Steering lock first but obviously check the steering
Complete Assembly fully. Would you post up your
findings so the rest of us know what to look out for?
Cheers.

[DaveyDavey]

Had this happen years ago on a Morris 1800 going round a mini round about and ending up heading for the door of a pub but stopped in time.
The problem was a broken spring in the steering lock, so the locking bar drop into the column slot.

To be honest, this is what I am hoping has actually happened with it.

My Dad lives 10 minutes away from where I work, and has everything I could need to investigate the problem. So in about 30 minutes time when traffic has calmed down a bit I shall limp slowly over there taking things very gingerly.

Helpfully enough, there is a thread in the maintenance section on "removing the ignition lock assemble" from MarksDTM.

ChrisG - Will most certainly be posting up the result of my investigations later on.

Thanks to everyone for their input too, this forum is such a great place  

[DaveyDavey]

Update:

Right, I have safely negotiated the 10 minute journey and the car is now safely parked up.

I have removed the steering cowl and disconnected both arms, however I am now at a loss as to what to do next. Do I have to take off the whole steering wheel in order to gain access to the allen key that holds the lock barrel in?

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1213353737

Thread on lock barrel removal above.

[JamesV6CDX]

No you don't...

Not 100% sure yet but I should be passing Bristol later this evening on my way down to Cardiff -

if it's at a reasonable hour I may be able to swing by and cast an eye - subject to approval of the Mrs

[RichardH]

Have a look at the airbag squib.  On my car, a piece of plastic broke off and made some crunching noise when I turned the wheel.  Once or twice the plastic would find its way to a spot where it would partially lock up the steering.  A hard yank would then free it for me.  To check this out you will have to remove the airbag and steering wheel.

You should be able to tell from the sound of the clunking if it is a plastic part or not.

Regards,
Richard

[DaveyDavey]

Eureka!!

James, you are a gent, no need for you to swing by now but the offer is very much appreciated.

Having stripped off as much as I could do I was left with the prospect of taking the wheel (airbag etc) off, which I wasn't happy about. So I decided to investigate some more before taking anything else off.

I engaged the steering lock with the key out, then tried to move the wheel - didn't move an inch. So I wondered whether I was being premature in blaming the steering lock?

A little more poking around and turning the wheel revealed that the large black plastic ring that has the airbag etc plugged into it was moving slightly whenever the steering wheel was catching. Further fidlding round resulted in the wheel jamming, my forcing it and a small something pinging into view, which I coaxed out with my fingers.

Turns out there was a small piece of black plastic floating round in there that was getting caught up. One of the plastic indicator cancellation things had disintegrated at some point in the past and presumably this piece of plastic was lodged somewhere until it made a bid for freedom today.

So my panic is over, it wasn't anything too serious after all.

Once again, many thanks for the input and especially to James for the very kind offer of swinging by for a look.

 

[DaveyDavey]

RichardH, that was indeed the cause of the problem. Thanks for the info  

[RichardH]

Sounds like you sorted it yourself!  Good stuff.  It's always nice when what you think may be a big problem turns out to be nice and simple.