Here's what's inside the steering column on your car and how it works to turn your wheels.


The steering column consists of: wiper switch, turn signal, cruise control, horn and airbag, clock spring, ignition cylinder and steering lock, tilt (if equiped), the steering shaft, and intermediate shaft.



It connects the steering wheel to the rack and pinion in the engine bay.



Here's all the components removed:



Ignition cylinder with steering lock:



The steering lock has a tab that jumps up and locks into the rotating shaft as a theft deterrent mechanism when there's no key inserted.



The steering lock is controlled by a cam that turns with the igntion cylinder:



Inside the ignition switch:



The steering column is collapsable in a crash. It takes some force to collapse it but I Was able to do it with a hammer:



The turn signals work with a little tongue that sticks out into this collar to self cancel:





And this is what the inside of the turn signal switch looks like:



The clock spring is responsible for taking wires to the turning part of the steering wheels for upto 5 turns. This powers the airbag, horn, cruise and any other steering wheel controls.



The steering wheel is a skinny tube coated with a thick layer of the rubbery grip material:



And that's all the parts that go into your steering column!



These parts were all taken off from my 2001 Toyota Corolla.

 

Wow this is great. I've always wondered what the core of the steering wheel looked like.

How much of the car is left? I can't imagine there's that many more tutorials to read/watch. You've done a whole bunch of these already.

 

Glad you found it useful!

The body of the car has been scrapped but I have a lot of parts left over that I've removed. According to my little short list here, there's roughly 20 more pieces left...