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Steering column lock fault

89K views 396 replies 71 participants last post by  Ampera2012 
#1 ·
For the second time I had the steering column lock fault message today which completely disables the car ( including not being able to switch the ignition off ). At least this time it did reset itself after about 20 minutes before the mechanic (electrician?!) arrived, whereas last time it had to be flat-bedded 100 miles back to the dealer. When the laptop was plugged in it showed a number of faults recorded with the main one being " steering column lock incorrect password".
I have asked the dealer to log it with Vauxhall and I will feed back their response.
 
#4 ·
The password as I understand it is held within the cars system and is automatically generated when you start it. I'm not quite sure how you would enter a code as you suggest Jack or at least from the screen that the mechanic had when he coupled the laptop which just listed the faults which all subsequently cleared.
 
#5 ·
It was a joke :p likely each module has a signature that it signals the CAN bus with. If the message from a module isn't signed with the appropriate signature the receiving module then refuses it - causing the fault. As its steering related I would surmise the tolerance for incorrect data is zero, so will fault almost immediately if anything is out of the ordinary.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Had this myself yesterday. After a 250 mile drive from Manchester (so all on petrol) when I arrived home and switched off I had the message "service steering column" and the inevitable beeps and bongs. The car is completely disabled. When you open the door the steering lock engages as normal (I must admit I'd never really noticed before that it only engages the lock when you open the door) but trying to restart gets a "turn steering wheel and restart" message with a clicking noise from the steering column. Obviously I tried the turn-the-wheel thing but made no difference.

I then tried the superstitious stuff you read like "lock it and walk 100 yards away" and "give it a full re-charge" but all to no avail. I also tried reading the codes using the ODB2 dongle but there were none so I cleared them anyway but still no good.

I then started to pull various fuses thinking that may reset something (ECU etc). There is a fuse F2 in the fusebox to right of the driver called Steering Column and when I pulled that I noticed it was coated in a white powdery residue, so much so that I doubted it would make an electrical contact. I cleaned it off, replaced it and it worked! As a check I pulled the fuse again, tried a restart with the fuse out and got the same fault. Fuse back in, worked fine.

Impossible to know for sure if it was the fuse (would it have cleared at that moment anyway?) but I'm pretty convinced that it was ...
 
#12 ·
Had this myself yesterday. After a 250 mile drive from Manchester (so all on petrol) when I arrived home and switched off I had the message "service steering column" and the inevitable beeps and bongs. The car is completely disabled. When you open the door the steering lock engages as normal (I must admit I'd never really noticed before that it only engages the lock when you open the door) but trying to restart gets a "turn steering wheel and restart" message with a clicking noise from the steering column. Obviously I tried the turn-the-wheel thing but made no difference.

I then tried the superstitious stuff you read like "lock it and walk 100 yards away" and "give it a full re-charge" but all to no avail. I also tried reading the codes using the ODB2 dongle but there were none so I cleared them anyway but still no good.

I then started to pull various fuses thinking that may reset something (ECU etc). There is a fuse F2 in the fusebox to right of the driver called Steering Column and when I pulled that I noticed it was coated in a white powdery residue, so much so that I doubted it would make an electrical contact. I clean it off, replaced it and it worked! As a check I pulled the fuse again, tried a restart with the fuse out and got the same fault. Fuse back in, worked fine.

Impossible to know for sure if it was the fuse (would it have cleared at that moment anyway?) but I'm pretty convinced that it was ...
Good detective work !
 
#13 ·
I've got my ODB2 dongle all primed to try next time the car locks out on me and you've beaten me to it! When (and it will be when) it next happens I shall give the F2 fuse a pull and see if we can definitely pinpoint this as a fix. I am still waiting for Vauxhall to come back to me after my last lock out but will start harassing them in about a week.
 
#14 ·
This happened to me twice a couple of years ago, including the whole not being able to switch the car off thing which eventually reset after a few minutes. Vauxhall said I must have been parked against a curb out on uneven ground, but once was on my brother's drive and the second was in a flat parking space at a little chef well away from any curb. They never did detect a fault when they had the car in next.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I had this myself today. I had previously seen the steering column lock fault a couple of times before, both when I had failed to give the car a full charge (at the dealership in fact!) but I was previously able to get it to go away by power cycling and it hasn't happened since April. This time that didn't work.

I was parked in a narrow street where you are expected to park with the right side of the car on the curb, so there appears to be some truth in the idea that non-level parking can upset it. It is also possible that I stepped on the brake pedal when I first switched the car off.

On my return to the car a few minutes later it powered up normally but showed the error message and I could not move the steering wheel or get it out of Park. I did not notice any clicking noises. I was able to turn the car off, and did so, waited 30 secs or so and then powered up again and got the same result. Attempting to power down, I had some trouble (it didn't go off) but eventually I was successful. Powering up again after a minute or two I got the same result. I then turned it off and left the car, which gave me a triple beep, presumably indicating that the key fob was not where it expected it to be (it was in my pocket). Returning to the car after a couple of minutes I powered the car up and the message did not reappear.

This is rather disturbing, and as it appears to have been known for a long time, I would be most grateful for the current state of knowledge on this issue if any more is known than appears in this thread, such as a series of things that one can try.

Many thanks in advance.

PS: Oh, and which of the many ODB2 devices would be recommended and what would I be able to do with it if I had one?
 
#20 ·
Derekb..

The service steering lock message came up last night after a few hours of charging following a 130 odd mile trip to Canterbury. I (eventually) managed to get the f2 fuse out and noticed the white crust covering the blades. After scraping these clean and refitting the fuse, message was gone.
Thanks for the heads up.
 
#25 ·
I have a Holden Volt. Have experienced all the above till total failure. Dealer states pulling fuse only temp fix till the steering lock module totally fails. Be warned as mine did. Car now at dealer for 2 weeks waiting for part, when it arrived it still does not work. Currently waiting for answer from Holden HQ as there is a mismatch software issue they have not been able to get around. Suggest you consider following up with dealer as it appears that when this fault starts it leads to total failure eventually.
 
#27 ·
I had the 'Service Steering Column' fault this morning (actually, I saw it flash up last night as I locked the car), but armed with the handy research from this site, I didn't feel alone or too dispirited....

Funny thing though was the car apparently 'started' - that is, the driving lights came on, but the gear shift was stuck in Park and I got a prompt to 'rotate the steering wheel and then try starting again', - sadly to no avail.

Referring to this thread, I removed Fuse F2 (no white powder residue though), cleaned it and replaced it but I'm not sure it sorted the problem.

I was about to abandon the car on the drive and borrow my son's car for work commute - but then realised that the car wouldn't 'power down'. That is, all the bells and bongs were sounding as I opened / closed doors and the driving lights wouldn't turn off. Finally, standing outside the car and leaning across the driver's seat, pressing the 'Power' button triggered the familiar 'Ampera sigh' as it powered down.

After that, I jumped in again and the car powered up and functioned as it should.... Fingers crossed that was a 'one off'.... First 'failure' for me in 18 months and 380000 miles. Something I'll add to the list to be looked at (2 x recalls and sticking charge flap) for the 40K service due in a couple of months....o_O
 
#29 ·
Aah.. Slip of the finger. 38K miles (not 380).

Having run GM cars for the past 24 years (ok- 20 of them were whilst working at GM, so it was sort of inevitable), this is the best one I've had the pleasure of driving: smooth, relaxing, spirited (when needed) and extremely economical - 224mpg lifetime - so I re I hope it IS the fuse and that this problem is behind me.:)
 
#30 ·
Hi guys, I had the same issue last night. Got the service steering column message and couldn't shift out of park. Eventually gave up and took a taxi home. This morning, armed with the knowledge gained from this thread I returned to the car and pulled, cleaned and re-inserted the F2 fuse (the hardest part of the exercise was getting into the under-bonnet fuse box to extract the extraction tool). There was no obvious corrosion on the prongs but scraping them left them a bit brighter and when the fuse was replaced the message went away and I can drive again.

I have it booked in to Bellinger tomorrow for the 40k service and I've asked them to look at this issue as well.
 
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