Steering Wheel Scraping

[CruiserPaul]

Kind of a boring topic but annoys me enough to post for advice.
The back of my steering wheel is scraping against the plastic piece behind it. You can see in the attached pictures that the gap behind the steering wheel varies substantially, and makes a subtle scraping sound as I turn the wheel. It has been this way since I purchased the vehicle 2 years ago. Thanks in advance for your thoughts/advice. -Paul

 

[Dwight S]

On mine, I had that problem when the clamshell surround wasn't seated properly. Remove the two screws you see as you turn the wheel and the one on the underside and pry the clamshell apart and see if you can re- seat it. Its a minor adjustment as you'll probably see.

 

[CruiserPaul]

Confirmed, will do that tonight and report back.

 

[OregonLC]

hmmm... the wiper arm base is fixed to the column, no? In the pic it looks centered in the housing. Was the truck ever in a wreck?

 

[hkeller]

Yeah, that is not normal.

 

[2000UZJ]

My guess is the raw power of the 100 made the previous owner hang on for dear life and bent the steering column.

 

[skhochay]

I have seen this , the problem is that car or the steering wheel from the car that had front collision. so the steering wheel is slightly banded on the frame. this is the fix : get the airbag out first unbolt the wheel , secure wheel in some clamp and just pull slowly from the bottom feel the force do not overdue. If you were closer I can do it for ya, but you can do it , it is fairy easy.

 

[CruiserPaul]

I am going off of memory, but don't recall the Carfax indicating any significant wrecks. The steering wheel has given me reason for pause before. In addition to the scraping issue, the center is more recessed on the right side and has 2 small dimples protruding on the right side (see picture).

Skhochay- Thanks, I will give that a shot and report back.