Hey guys I picked up a 95 sc300 that I’ve been working on. I was having some issues with the tilt and telescoping steering. One of this issues was the common gear not aligned properly problem. I fixed that with a washer so no more grinding noise or anything like that.

My issue is that after I turn the car on I can move the wheel up or down, in or out, but only for a second or two. It’s like moves a little bit and then stops. Once it stops you can try and move it any which way and nothing will happen. If I turn the car off for a few minutes and then try again I can get it to move slightly and then it stops again. It seems like the longer you let it rest the more it will move.

I don’t know if the motor is having a hard time (would have to be both motors though I’m guessing) or it’s something else.

Any ideas?

 

If it is the motor, which more searching seems to point towards... are all sc year interchangeable?

 

I've seen that happen on the telescoping motor but never on the tilt. In my experience, the tilt motor is very reliable (aside from the worn worm gear issue), while the tele motor is utter rubbish.

I recall there being a year change on one of the motors (white vs blue connectors or something). I'm leaning toward that being the tilt motor.

Man, my memory is foggy today. The mirror ECU up under the left side of the dash also controls tilt/tele functions (and seat memory), right? That could be worth looking at, if both functions are iffy for you.

 

Yeah that may be worth looking at. The two act almost the same. The only reason I suggested it could be the motor is I found a few threads with other people having similar symptoms. It working for 2 seconds then dying. I think one or two of them replaced the motor and it fixed it at least for a while. When I look for motors the main difference I see if that some have a black casing for the motor and some have a silver casing. My 95 has a silver casing for each motor. I believe the black motors are on the 92-93 but I dont know if they are interchangeable. Ideally I could buy a column from a 97+ because they seem to be easier to find.

 

I vaguely recall that the harness that plugs into the tilt steering unit sometimes had issues due to the wiring being too taught or tight. Can't find the specific link but loosening to allow more slack fixed the issue. Wish I could find the saved link I had from a few years back on it...

 

Do you remember which side of the wiring?

 

I do not. It was the wiring for one of the harnesses that plugs into the unit. The LS400 had the issue also, so may be able to find more on it search on that vehicle.