DIY: Replace dreaded steering-lock on 2009s and early 2010s.

Baer383

Hey Fritz This site has been very quiet since you have been gone don't come in here and start the "fuse" stuff again like you and that other guy did and all you guys did was confuse everybody if you want to help then help if you have any other agenda I suggest finding a new site.

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2013 ZL1

754 rwhp 747 rwtq

bhk1004

Hello guys.

So... i ended up having my steering lock go out on me on my GTR, and after searching realized the 370z had the same part and you guys had alot of information.

Since my warranty was out, I ended up having my car towed to my home and attempted some of the fixes that are listed on this forum. It seems the Fuse fix doesnt work on the GTR, as I was able to get the car to turn on to Acc and On mode, and with the fuse removed, the car was still looking for the steering lock. I didnt end up trying to cut the wire, maybe this will work?

I will attach some pictures of the battery fuse box and the fuse that i removed if someone wants to look at it.

Anyways I ended up taking out the Dremel, and slicing the box open, and having the gear fully turned so that the 2 buttons are fully depressed and basically it is in a permanent "unlocked" state.

Well... that is cool but now, it seems this throws a code? the key light came back on after a few times of turning the car on and off. It doesnt affect the car turning on, but it seems to be triggering that it cannot lock the steering lock when the car is off? It actually goes away when I clear the codes on the car but will always come back after a few on and off cycles.

Anyways, if anyone has any more information about this on a GTR or possibly another permanent fix that i havent tried. or maybe i should try the wire cutting method?

akmofo

I'm confused. about this part:
Are you saying it doesn't prevent the car from starting? Or that the steering lock no longer works? I would expect the lock to not work anymore if you pulled the fuse.

I think the fuse just powers the motor that spins the gear and raises/lowers the lock. Cutting the wire does the same thing, just at a different point in the circuit.

My girlfriend's car has the little yellow light on as well, but it doesn't seem to affect the ability to start it, which is the only thing I cared about.

bhk1004

yes, the light is on, but the car starts perfectly fine. I was wondering if there is a way to get rid of this stupid light... as I am sure there will be questions when I am either selling the car or trading the car in which will become a headache...

BTW awesome info on the new bolts to replace the headache security bolts... gonna go get me some tonight!

akmofo

Thanks! Wait, I just realized you said you have a GTR. Aren't you eligible for the recall?

DIY: Replace dreaded steering-lock on 2009s and early 2010s.

bhk1004

called the GTR hotline, what we consider a recall and what they consider a recall are 2 completely different things. They say officially that is only considered a technical service bulletin and are refusing to fix it FOC outside of warranty. and the part doesnt fall under the drivetrain warranty... i woulda thought steering wheel would be part of the drivetrain? lol. oh well.

oh and my car didnt fall into the catergory for the TSB either... due to this was to replace the unit for the C model. and my car already came with the C so I am assuming thats why my VIN wasnt included in this.

akmofo

I wrote up a complete DIY on how I repaired mine.

DIY - Steering lock internals workaround for those whose locks have already failed.

(this wasn't really to answer bhk1004's post, just coincidentally posted at the same time).

bhk1004

yes, I followed your pictures and write ups, as well as someone else on the GTR forums that actually was able to actually fix the unit. So now with the motor removed and the unit in a permanent "unlocked" button depressed mode, I am getting the key light again. but it seems now its for not being able to "lock" when the car is turned off and is throwing a code. which I can actually wipe. but will come back.

Wondering if there is a fix somewhere for this.

BTW, I actually used the peice at the top, the spring lock mechanism, the hold the pin down which seemed to work pretty good as well.

kenchan

kinda wierd having a GTR guy finding info about steering lock here since i originally found the info from a GTR site how they swapped out the unit.

GL on the repairs guys.

fritz

Baer 3883 wrote:
Hey Fritz This site has been very quiet since you have been gone don't come in here and start the "fuse" stuff again like you and that other guy did and all you guys did was confuse everybody if you want to help then help if you have any other agenda I suggest finding a new site.

What does one do with that? From willy waving nonsense on a good engines thread? ...to "shoulda coulda" posts? To hi-jacked ideas? Or 3000+ repetitions of the same English error? Does no-one dare tell? I understand why. Why bother?

Since I did all the R&D (without Baer 383 help, but his thanks actually posted) and my name occurs within the first four lines of at least 4 thread starters to acknowledge that R&D, methinks I'll post help and/or safety where it may be (but not necessarily is) ignored.

Full marks to akmofo for sorting out the mess of posts, mostly caused by "for real" when it was just an "alternative": good for many, but misleading, and not for Europe.

Got that, Mr B? "For real"? Good.

Fritz.

kenchan

hey fritz- you have been very helpful in your posts especially the cut brown wire approach you introduced, along with how you took apart the steering lock (you were the first one) to figure out the fix per your other thread.
also followed by AWX Z34 and KORRUPT confirming this.

i think pulling the steering-lock fuse idea is also great. but without fritz figuring out that the car starts even with a broken steering-lock shut off in the unlock state, we probably would still be scratching our heads.

this has definitely been a team effort to resolve. personally, when my rev-c dies, im going to knock it around alittle bit to try to unlock it, then cut brown wire to disable it.

if that fails, i will use my working rev-b and disable it while cutting the brown wire.

GaleForce

Fritz, I appreciate your R&D and your willingness to share it with the forum.

It's great to have many options to get around this problem. There are enough threads on this forum for people to read and make the choice that suits them best.

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Anifaust

Big shout out to DEpointfive0 for having his cell# out there for quick reference tonight! Thanks buddy!

Welp add me to the list of stricken '09 370's. Build date 01/09 6MT-RevB SLU. I've had the car a little over a year myself and it has right around 36k miles. Friday at lunch- 1pm No start. Ikey light has been intermittently acting up the past month or so. Dealer initially said that I just needed a new Keyfob battery-did so. I had the actual car battery replaced back in December too, it was dying as well apparently. I'm outside of warranty so just as a preemptive strike to the Ikey light I was reading a bit on the forums here about what was believed to be the primary cause.

I pulled my SLU out from the dash this evening after getting bored with banging on it via rubber mallet and mashing the Start repeatedly. By the time I peeked at the mounting bolts they were loose enough to just undo them by hand. When I got it free I was shocked to see my security bolt wasn't in the lock position like most of the affected but what appears to be fully retracted or so outward appearances would seem. I don't have the cohones or tools to crack the case YET! I haven't pulled any fuses or cut any wires...nor am I wanting to cut the original harness if at all possible!

Any random techniques or measures you guys want me to try besides the main ones from the DIY?

I'm still debating if I want to order another part- $549 locally and they say 2 day wait? From the sound of other peoples experience though that seems a bit fishy like salesman bs.

Some additional and possibly helpful weather information provided by our tax dollars?

CLIMATE REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
529 PM CST FRI JAN 25 2013

...THE OKLAHOMA CITY CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 25 2013...
VALID TODAY AS OF 0500 PM LOCAL TIME.

WEATHER ITEM OBSERVED TIME RECORD YEAR NORMAL DEPARTURE LAST
VALUE (LST) VALUE TIME
.................................................. ................
TEMPERATURE (F)
TODAY
MAXIMUM 50 400 PM
MINIMUM 28 414 AM
AVERAGE 39

SKY COVER
AVERAGE SKY COVER 0.9

WEATHER CONDITIONS
THE FOLLOWING WEATHER WAS RECORDED TODAY.
FOG
HAZE

RELATIVE HUMIDITY (PERCENT)
HIGHEST 85 300 AM
LOWEST 42 300 PM
AVERAGE 64

.................................................. ........
(source-)

akmofo

It seems to me, if it's not in the locked position, it's probably just not rotated down far enough to contact the two turquoise switches. You could drill a small enough hole to rotate the gear all the way into the downward position here. If you did this, you would want to cut the brown wire, or pull the fuse though to prevent the motor from rotating it again.

Attached Images

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akmofo

Thinking about this even more... if you drilled the hole here (carefully, so you don't punch into the board) you would have access to the turquoise switches, and/or rotate the gear.

Attached Images

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