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Edit: For the most significant findings regarding telescoping functionality, refer to post #3.
I finally tackled one of my major annoyances with the SC: sporadically functioning tilt/telescoping steering wheel motors. My tele feature usually retracts (foreward) but rarely extends. Likewise, my tilt always goes up but rarely goes down. I hate disconnecting the battery because the column always resets to its highest position, and naturally, my preferred spot is all the way down and mostly/fully extended. I actually started on this little project with the plans of lowering the steering column half an inch or so with spacers, so I could make my preferred spot the middle of the range. Unfortunately, at least one of the four bolts has no extra thread for doing so.
I've done the worm gear fix on the tilt motor already, so I knew that wasn't the issue. I've tried 3 or 4 tilt/tele ECUs and they all work about the same ... sporadically. I figured it had to be something in the column itself, so I dug in and here's what I found, bouncing between my steering column and a spare I've had sitting around forever. In the end, it probably would have been easier to just swap columns... But, I wasn't sure if the '95+ harness is the same with the added fog lights.
Bottom view of the tilt motor area. Tele motor's 8mm allen plug just visible at bottom right, alongside screwdriver shaft.
I used two screwdrivers to point to the areas of interest. #1 is the slotted shaft that the plastic worm gear turns, which then turns the internal metal gears. #2 is a 12mm nut on the back (engine end) of the shaft that the worm gear turns. This is very significant. Turning it either direction raises or lowers the column. So, to those who have asked if the column can be manually adjusted when the motor doesn't work, there's your answer.
On my spare column, turning the 12mm nut turns the slotted worm gear shaft. On my car's column, it doesn't... So, I removed all the tilt motor stuff and decided I would just manually lower the column all the way by turning the slotted shaft itself. Problem solved (and 14 oz shaved), as long as I never have reason to raise it.
Top view of the tilt motor's internal gearing.
Long after I was out of daylight, I kept experimenting on the spare column in the garage. Peering down from above, I could see the internal gearing work as intended. To the right of the metal gear, perpendicular to the little allen plug on the worm gear's shaft, is a semi-freewheeling sleeve that turns with the shaft until at the end of the up/down range, then spins separately. I found there's also a 7mm allen on the opposite end (cabin side) of the 12mm nut's shaft, just visible on the right side in the above pic. It turns with the 12mm nut.
Checking against my car with daylight this morning, that freewheeling shaft didn't seem to be doing its thing. So, I tried tightening the 7mm allen against the 12mm nut on opposite sides of the shaft. If it moved any, it was extremely minor. I think it tightened up ever so slightly. As soon as I had done that, the worm gear's slotted shaft turned consistently with the main shaft!
Given how little tightening of the 7mm allen made a difference, I'm not completely confident in putting the tilt motor back in -- it's quite a bear to remove while on the car, with the most stubborn connector on the car and one nearly impossible bolt to get to (mine was stripped and barely recoverable) -- but with a bit more testing, I think I'll be ready to call this solved. If flipping/replacing the plastic worm gear doesn't get your tilt motor working, this is likely the solution.
Tele's motor 8mm allen plug partially removed, cover plate (behind it) already off.
Next up is trying to figure out a manual adjustment of the telescoping motor. It was immediately obvious that it is a much more complex setup than the tilt motor, and not designed to be serviced... When you unscrew the motor from it's hidey hole, expect little bearings to start showing up mysteriously in the yellow grease.
The above pic is the 8mm allen plug, after having removed its extremely tight lock nut and partially unscrewing it. I think unscrewing the allen plug is what allows the bearings (it's full of them in the exposed race when removed) to work their way down the shaft to the motor's hole.
Washed out view of tele motor's housing.
The upper portion is where the white plastic worm gear resides, oriented front to back. With how difficult it is to remove the allen plug with the dual threading setup, it seems like a high likelihood of the worm gear being misaligned. When I first took the motor out, the worm gear was all the way at the left of the opening, barely recognizable as a gear in the grease. As I started unscrewing the allen plug, and later put the plug back in, it was over to the center/right. I still have a lot left to figure out on this aspect, but it sure looks like a setup prone to failure.
Behind the allen plug is the oval shaped metal & plastic thing, pointed to by the screwdriver two pictures up. It has roller bearings top and bottom that pop into grooves on the metal brackets affixed to the steering column. That's what controls the in/out motion, although the exact mechanism still eludes me. There's a tiny metal gear just visible embedded into the top of that oval piece, but I'm not sure what turns it (probably the shaft that goes through it) or what exactly it does.
Oddly, turning the 12mm nut doesn't seem to do anything when the tilt motor is reinstalled. The freewheeling shaft must spin when it meets gearing resistance from the motor. But, I put the motor back in without clipping the connector in all the way (just enough to make contact, not enough to require hours of removal cussing), and the tilt function is working like a champ.
1) I put my spare tilt motor in, having bench tested it earlier. I didn't test the old one until today, and surprisingly, it isn't responding either direction, even though it always moved the column up. So, the tilt issues must have been twofold. Why it 50% worked on the car and not at all when hooked up to battery power is tough to explain.
2) I finally got my telescoping motor removed, and to my dismay, it works perfectly on the bench. So, the motor isn't the problem. It could be the gearing, but more likely it's a bad contact in the 4-way switch. Unfortunately, that thing was not designed to be serviceable, either. The switch and wiring is a continuous unit all the way back to the main connector at the back of the column. It would mean a lot of de-pinning and breaking of plastic in extremely tight quarters. I'm probably out of luck on getting the telescoping feature working unless figuring out a manual adjustment.
Edit: It occurred to me to try a simple test, hooking the removed tele motor up to its connector, rather than battery power on the bench. Sure enough, it spins in the 'in' direction and is dead as can be in the 'out' direction. So, it's either a bad switch (like the melted contacts on my passenger seat) or something in the wiring.
Also, I tested whether the tilt/tele functions work with their computer removed (hoped it was just for settings memory), but they don't. I've reached "**** it!" status with this and am just ditching both motors and the computer for 2 lbs of weight loss and never having to deal with this garbage again. I can't full extend the column, but I can manually control tilt in the unlikely event I ever want to. The more idiotic "Toyota engineering" I remove from this car, the better it gets.
Since I'm talking to myself in this thread anyway...
Originally Posted by t2d2
Checking against my car with daylight this morning, that freewheeling shaft didn't seem to be doing its thing. So, I tried tightening the 7mm allen against the 12mm nut on opposite sides of the shaft. If it moved any, it was extremely minor. I think it tightened up ever so slightly. As soon as I had done that, the worm gear's slotted shaft turned consistently with the main shaft!
I confirmed the exact same thing on another SC today. The slightest tightening of that front allen bolt makes a world of difference.
Can you check resistance in the 4 way switch to make sure you don't have a bad resistor in the switch?
That sounds worth checking. Any idea how to access the back side of the switch? It seems like a sealed enclosure. Or would you check at the wire outputs to the motor? I need hand-holding when it comes to electrical troubleshooting.
I had a similar issue in my old car the telescopic would work sometimes and when it would in would only go in and out not up or down unless after a startup, BUT i simply just switched the small motor out. Please post what you find after you check the resistances.
That sounds worth checking. Any idea how to access the back side of the switch? It seems like a sealed enclosure. Or would you check at the wire outputs to the motor? I need hand-holding when it comes to electrical troubleshooting.
I have not attempted to work on this circuit, so not sure I am going to be any help.
I had a similar issue in my old car the telescopic would work sometimes and when it would in would only go in and out not up or down unless after a startup, BUT i simply just switched the small motor out. Please post what you find after you check the resistances.
The motors have been confirmed to work with 12V power applied directly.
I had a similar issue in my old car the telescopic would work sometimes and when it would in would only go in and out not up or down unless after a startup, BUT i simply just switched the small motor out. Please post what you find after you check the resistances.
Excellent thread bump. This topic has come up several times recently and I couldn't find anything in my notes about where I had posted my testing long ago.
07-02-16, 08:14 AM
steering wheel tilt/tele troubleshooting
