Steering locked in a turn!

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Bisho

Bisho

10 Year
Joined
Nov 24, 2014
Threads
62
Messages
2,104
Location
Azle, TX
This morning my steering wheel locked as I was coming out of a turn (2000 LC). Luckily I was slow on a country road with a shallow ditch. After I came to a stop, the wheel unlocked again like nothing happened. It felt mechanically locked, not like a loss of power steering.

Of course now it’s fully functional, so not much to troubleshoot. Any ideas?
 
Joint on the steering shaft? They've been known to bind up.

Glad no damage done!
 
Bisho said:
This morning my steering wheel locked as I was coming out of a turn (2000 LC). Luckily I was slow on a country road with a shallow ditch. After I came to a stop, the wheel unlocked again like nothing happened. It felt mechanically locked, not like a loss of power steering.

Of course now it’s fully functional, so not much to troubleshoot. Any ideas?
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Dang Brian- glad you’re ok.

What was the road surface like just before that happened, any bump dip sudden jolt? Did it feel like there was any play in the wheel, gradual binding or like the column locked in place? Just trying to figure out what end to start inspecting first.
 
Honestly it was smooth operation before and after. No harsh bumps. It was very puzzling and unexpected. Initially I thought something mechanical was hard broke, but the next second it was smooth as silk again. I did wonder if somehow the steering lock could somehow engage. I admittedly don’t know much about how that mechanism works (yet). I’ll have to park it until I have time to tear into it.
 
TexLexican said:
Wow. Any recent work done on anything ignition or steering wheel related?
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I replaced a coil recently, but that can’t be related.
 
Crazy, glad nothing bad happened.... It may pay to put the rig on a lift and just turn the wheel lock to lock a dozen or so times to check it all over and see if anything is binding ...

I was going to ask the same thing about your ignition and if you did the replacement that some folks do after breaking the steering wheel lock. This is the first time I;ve hear of anyone's wheel locking up during operation, scary stuff.
 
Had the same issue on my LX470, randomly get stiff to the point where it feels like it's locked. Culprit was a bad steering shaft u Joint, rusted
 
FxFormat said:
Had the same issue on my LX470, randomly get stiff to the point where it feels like it's locked. Culprit was a bad steering shaft u Joint, rusted
Click to expand...
Is that the little joint that is visible under the hood ? Or is it hidden in the steering column ?
 
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