My Car Wouldnt Start And Was Smoking From The Steering Column By The Turn Signal….
Posted in Steering Component | Asked on Jul 22, 2010
I had it towed to the dealership, they said its my ignition switch and possibly multi function switch also. for the ignition switch its the electrical component located inside the steering column, not the key cylinder. and the multi function switch is the one for the headlamp/turn signals. they’re wanting to charge me almost $600 to replace the parts. is this a job i could do myself with the haynes manual? ive been trying to find a diagram online to explain the dismantling to see if i could do it, but ive been unsuccessful so far. any help would be much appreciated.
i drive a 2001 Saturn L300 V6 3.0
thanks in advance!
There are 3 Answers
I would not recommend doing this yourself. Especially if you have an air bag in the steering wheel. You would have to make sure the SRS or SDS is disabled (airbag)- you need a special tool to remove parts of the steering wheel- THEN, there is the wiring to deal with- and possibly even more wiring if the thing was smoking!
Again, I would not recommend trying this yourself.
Well if it weren’t for airbags I would say yeah go for it. Another thing, if it wouldn’t start and there’s smoking…that would be an ignition switch frying, not your Multi Function(MFA). Have you tried to turn on your headlights and turn signals? That MFA is expensive, I think they’re just trying to squeeze some money out of you. But ask yourself this. Do you have a steering wheel puller? Do you even have all the tools to do it? Haynes manual will tell you how, but in my experience with Haynes, they always leave one thing out and I have to hunt it down.
sounds like you have a short in the steering col um.