Steering wheel locked Towed to dealer
 

Hey everyone,
So my car is getting towed to Liberty Subaru in Emerson NJ.

The car sat for 4 days with the front pipe out, as i was getting a new one. When i went to start it up so i could move it to install the front pipe, i got nothing. The steering wheel is locked in place, so the ignition wont trigger the starter.

I have tried everything from jiggling the steering wheel, holding it off the locks to either side. Disconnected the battery, removed the ecm fuse, removed to steering lock fuse. Called subaru who advised to switch key fob batteries(i knew this was not the problem) but did it anyway. It has now been 4 days of sitting and 3 days of me trying random thing to get it to start while it sits at my shop.

I have tried everything i can think of, so now it is on its way to the dealer, who by the way Subaru of america roadside companies are terrible for towing. Sent 3 compaines all of which refused to tow the car because its lowered 1 inch.

Anyway, if anyone has any insight it would be greatly appreciated as i spoke the the service manager(I use this dealer for parts at my shop all the time) and he and well as the other advisors have never seen this issue before. Which leads me to believe that this could be a long drawn out process.

have you checked under the car to make sure that you have nothing binding the steering rack? have you also tried pushing the start button to ACC/IGN and turning the wheel, instead of just clutch in and starting it up?

^

I would check to see if anything is binding it underneath causing it to be stuck. If not check to make sure you steering wheel isnt in just lock mode..

Going to ask the stupid question here, but have you checked your battery?

Yes i have tried to just go thru ACC and Ign On instaed of clutch, but did not look for binding in the rack.i figured although the wheel is locked if the rack was binding it would still have enough room to get off the steering locks @ryoma

what do you mean by being in lock mode? @MisterSheep

Yes battery is in good shape.

When your car is off and you try to move your steering while it was off it kind of goes into this "lock mode" you have to unlock it by turning the steering wheel in a certain direction. From there you will be able to turn the ignition

My steering wheel is most definetly locked. The problem is it will not come off the locks no matter what i do, it is possible i hit the steering wheel getting out of the car the last time causing it to lock, non the less it should still come out of the lock position by simply holding pressure off the locks which i have done every which way i can think of.

Well, I'd suggest you have the ignition lock assembly replaced.

Life is spooky enough, without having a mystery steering wheel lockup .....:popcorn:


humfrz

Try jacking up the front to get weight off the tires?

Yea the car was up on go jacks and regular jacks, still nothing

There was a post on this about the guys steering wheel locking during a spirited drive, wonder if this is a similar issue, or if that was just a electronic power steering issue.

yea i saw that, unfortunately I hadn't driven the car all day. I pulled it into the shop pulled it back out and parked it for 4 days, went to start it and nothing.:iono: