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

akmofo

Yeah I'm hoping that since it was already at the dealer for that, and the dealer diagnosed it as a dead slu that I'll be ok. They were a little surprised when I told them I was going to come in and take the part and repair it.

Not that I expect the service advisors to understand the inner workings of the unit.

fritz

Akmofo wrote:

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...

The light will probably go out if the neg bat terminal is dis for a few minutes.
with ign off.
If not try a half hour.
First read the owner's manual on windows.
You'll also lose radio settings but all else will be AOK after a mile or two.

If the light does not go out there remains a problem.

Fritz

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.

__________________

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.

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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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Anifaust

It's pouring down rain here today, not so sure I want to lift her skirt and be toying around with fuses at the moment. Do you know what the approximate board clearance there right after the sloped corner in the last picture is? What you used looks like it chewed through the casing rather easily, was that just a regular drill bit? I'm thinking I may give it a go with a grinder tip.

akmofo

I used a dremel cutting wheel, and drilled into it with my drill, but what really chewed it up was trying to bend the frame to get it apart. Bending the holes I cut cause them to rip, which is why it looked so chewed up. The holes by themselves came out pretty clean before the bending.

You can see in Korrupt's picture here, the board is pretty close to the bottom of the casing.



Also, notice the 6 solder points in a perfect line where the switches are. That should be your guide for where the hole needs to go.

If you do this, let us know. It would actually be a much simpler fix than ripping the whole thing apart. Let me know what size drill bit you use.

Attached Images

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Anifaust

So I went back and re-removed the unit for further examination.


It almost seems like my piston is reverse locked. I pushed down ever so gently with a small wooden kebob stick to gain a measure for depth. There is a nice little audible click that comes from inside when I nudge that piston down approximately 1/2 inch from being flush at the top. When I release it there is another tiny audible click and it returns to the state in the picture above but never fully extends? Somethings catching it...I'm about to go re-harness it and mash the piston with my finger to see if it'll fire up! Be back soon with updates and the car in the driveway hopefully.



Afterthought just before leaving-it feels spring loaded but none of those pictures indicate anything pushing upwards? Only noticeable springs are the slide bolt that seems to "lock" it into the fully extended position like in your video??

akmofo

I don't think the force will cause the gear to rotate enough for the bottom part of the lock to hit those switches. There is a spring in the lock thing. I'm not quite sure the purpose, but it does allow it to press in and pop back out a little. I'm not sure the purpose of it. I think you can see it in this picture.

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Anifaust

VRRRROOOOMMMM

Hey Nissan, nice security...I just fixed my car and bypassed your unit with my index finger. I'll be keeping my 1107.96 for myself thank you very much!

Ok, so back on track. I need to find a permanent solution for this now. I bought a little rotary tool set and a JB weld steelstick. JB takes at least an hour to cure- I don't have any sort of vice setup to clamp the bolt down either. May have to default to cutting the case open and dialing it back manually from the side. My main goal here is to keep as much outward appearance of normality though in case I want to resell it.

Suggestions at this stage? I'll see if I can upload a video from my phone of what I did tonight too.

akmofo

Cover the hole you cut with a Nissan sticker.

kenchan

yah, after you get the failed lock working, put the car in ACC and either cut the brown wire or pull the fuse. that is your permanent solution per other members.

i suppose you can use aluminum foil tape to put that dissassembled steering lock back together.