I needed a state inspection last week, so I went farther and got the 30,000 mile service on my 2002 MN6 and an oil change.

Today I got the column-lock problem. Out of desperation I pounded on the steering wheel, and gave the key one more try before calling a cab. Sure enough the wheel turned and I drove home.

Two things : it's funny the FAQ suggests pounding the wheel a bit. And maybe the battery got drained during the 30,000 mile service (whatever that was that cost me $600).

Recommendations? Get a new battery? Get the bypass mod? Send car to dealer?

Thanks

 

Did you have the recall performed on your car?
I am assuming not; if the column locked. So I would take it to the dealer and have them perform the recall and that will cure it.

 

Not necessarily so. If you have an Auto trans the recall will fix the problem. If you have an MN6 they only reflash your computer to shut off the fuel when the column locks. If this is the case get yourself a CLB and be done with the problem!

 

Not anymore.

The recall for M6 cars has been revised this year They will remove the lock plate in the steering column and install a feeback relay, as they have been doing with A4 cars.

Even at that, the relay (harness K) GM is using doesn't exactly have a perfect success record, so IMO the CLB is still the most reliable fix.

 

do not get the recall with the MN6, i had the bypass installed in my car after it acted up, then i got the recall letter so i took the bypass out and let them "recall" it... the other night i was parked at school (in the ghetto) and i was forced to leave my car in the projects for 2 days exposed to other car doors and hoodlums... anyways, i went home and got my good old bypass for the column lock and now it doesn't work!! it is not compatible with the recall harness/relay that they installed... they won't give me a old harness so i can undo it and they will not fix it either so now i'm screwed either way... best of luck but i DO NOT RECOMMEND THE RECALL!!!

doug

 

This is me exactly. I ordered the CLB online, but then got impatient about waiting for the shipping. So I went to the dealer and bought the Harness Kit. I got the harness kit home and read that I need to get into the steering column, So I bailed on that too, and went back to the dealer. The dealer said the recall had been performed and any additional work will cost me $$$$. So now I am in a rental car to be able to get to work. And I may be paying the dealer for God knows what when I get the car back. What a mess. If all they do is flash the computer again, this problem may not go away.

I have been pitying GM for their woes and loss of market share for 2 years. With service like this, it is getting hard to keep the love.

Thanks for your commiseration about this plague on our cars.

 

I had the "special" recall done, after the latest recall, which BTW is indeed a removal of the locking plate even on MN6 cars, and an installation of a new relay. My relay subsequently failed, and although I did not get a locked column (because it can't lock now, without the locking plate), my fuel shut-off.

To make a long story short, GM had the dealer rip out the new relay and install a late '04 column lock actuator which supposedly really fixes the problem.

Anyway, the dealership was really cool and the tech let me compare the two actuators once he got the old one out, and before he put the new one in. They looked almost identical, but the old relay's locking pin looked like it was made of steel, while the new one looked like a shiny brass. Additionally, the steel pin on my old relay looked all notchy. From the looks my my pin, it was easy to see how the old pins tend to get chewed up, which undoubtedly contributes to them not being able to fully retract out of the locking plate, and/or retract fully back into the actuator housing.

While removal of the locking plate eliminates the possibility of the pin getting stuck in the locking plate, I believe if the pin is notched up enough to not be able to retract back into the housing, the actuator cannot send the proper "I'm ready" signal to the BCM.

It is entirely possible that part of the new actuator design is a locking pin made of brass instead of steel, and the brass may be less susceptible to getting notched up.

I'm sharing this info with you so that you don't waste your time trying a new battery, because from what I saw of the pin in the old style actuator, I highly doubt that spending money on a new battery will help unstick a stuck column lock. Whoever started that rumor is full of

 

That's what I did. IMO stay away from the dealer.

 

IMO the only failsafe fix for the column lock disaster would be a new body control module that does not have any column lock programming, otherwise we see the reported problem of a false "column locked" message that won't allow the car to be driven. GM should also remove either the lockplate or the lock mechanism to guarrantee that the pin never falls into a slot for safety.I think it's the BCM that does this task, and I would surmise that it isn't re-programable like the PCM, otherwise, tuners would simply turn it off. With several different column locked recall procedures, it is readilly aparant that GM has tried to fix this problem with as little cost to them as possible. Just look at the reports here of all the bum simulator relays that have failed. The contact obviously went to the low bidder! The only "problem" I've heard with the typical CLB is the theory that it might allow oxidation to occur on contacts in the BCM because it does not flow as much current as the factory relays. After 6 years, my CLB has not caused any problems. Maybe after another 6 years we'll put this theory to rest?

 

I take it that after comparison of the new vs old actuator, you agree that although the materials of construction may have changed, the electrical interaction of the actuator with the BCM is still the same.

(ie, the actuator just sends a signal to the BCM so the BCM knows the position of the actuator, and the BCM still is where the decision is made to cut fuel or not)

If so, the actuator may be more reliable, but it is still possible that the fuel will be cut off if the actuator fails. Correct?

 

Something does not sound right here when you say they will not give you the "old harness" to undo the fix.
There is no old harness. The recall does not remove any of the factory wiring harness from the car. The recall installs a jumper into the existing factory harness. You can "undo the fix" by removing the recall harness and reconnecting the factory harness to the actuator, or removing the harness and connecting the CLB to the "BCM side" of the factory harness.
Maybe when you tried to re-installl the CLB, you just unplugged one end of the recall harness and left the harness still connected to the BCM. If so, then you would still have the recall relay in the circuit along with the CLB, and I would not be surprised it did not work. If the Harness K recall harness is still in the car, locate both ends and completely remove it before installing the CLB and see if it works then.

 

I am not sure about that, because when I was first relayed the info from the GM Tech Center via the dealership's technician, it seemed that something did change in the communication from the actuator, but that may be something that got lost in translation. I'm not 100% sure on exactly how the actuator communicates with the BCM to begin with, so I don't want to suppose anything, but the info that was first relayed to me was that the new actuator signal was changed to NOT shut off fuel, but someone on this forum posted that that was not possible because the actuator itself cannot signal to shut-off fuel.

Even if the only change turns out to be a newly designed pin, which is less susceptible to marring by the locking plate, I think the chances of a new actuator failing are pretty much on par with a CLB failing, especially since there is now no locking plate in place to even mess up the pin. You see, after looking at all the parts and how they work, it became very obvious to me that the metal-to-metal contact between the pin and the plate were instrumental in the column lock failures. Not only was there an issue of too much torque by the steering mechanism putting pressure on the pin against the plate resulting in failure of the pin to be retracted, there was also the issue of a pin being marred up by the locking plate over time, and not being able to fully retract back into the actuator housing even if it did clear the locking plate.

In fact, now that I think about it, it might not even be the relays that are failing with the new recall. It could very well be the old actuator pins not fully retracting.

So, to me, it would seem that the only way you'd have fuel shut-off now (provided the signal sent from the actuator to the BCM remains unchanged), is if the NEW actuator fails to retract the pin, which is highly unlikely now that there's no locking plate in place to mar up the pin.

It's been a week since my car had the new actuator put in, and I haven't seen the fuel shut-off, unlike it did 3 days after the latest recall was done and the relay was installed, and the locking plate was removed. I take that as a good sign.

 

The actuator does not actually send a signal to the BCM to tell it what action to take. The BCM reads the position of the actuator based on limit switches that are closed when the actuator travels to the "locked" or "unlocked" position, so it is just a matter of closing a switch.

Here is what the actuator assembly looks like without the housing.



Switch is under the worm gear

 

Thanks for the pics. So, how the heck is the newly designed actuator supposed to fix this problem? Is it only what I supposed in my last post? Based on what you've shown me here, there are other things that can still go wrong, like even a bad switch, right?

 

Thanks for all the helpful insight into this.

Now I have the car back and the column is not locked, but the ABS light (which is red and looks like a deployed airbag) is stuck on. Is there a fuse I can pull out to rid myself of this maybe?

Or back to the dealership? (who charged me my $100 warrantee deductible for the column repair).

 

As you mentioned, GM likely believes the actuators will be less likely to fail since they now will not actually engage a lock plate. However, I think if the actuator does fail in the locked position, you will have the same problem of the fuel being shut off by the BCM. I would like to have someone confirm that GM has not actually changed how the actuator operates electrically, but it seems like if GM knew how to solve the problem electrically, they would not go to the trouble to replace the actuator. (hence the reason for the relay harness)
At least if the column cannot lock, if the actuator fails, you can always carry a spare relay harness to plug in to try to get home. Before the recall to remove the lockplate, even if you could get the correct signal to the BCM, you still had the locked steering column to deal with.

 

Wait a minute! You know what? It is entirely possible that the new actuator is re-designed to send an "everything's OK" signal ALL the time, so that the car does NOT ever shut-off fuel. Maybe that's what the tech was trying to tell me.

As you know by now, 3 days after the latest 04006C was performed, fuel was shut-off in my car. I called the dealership back, and they called the GM Tech Center. They told GM that they performed 04006C, and that I still had the fuel shut-off. GM said they had tons of those reports, and told them to replace the relay that was just installed because they said that some relays were bad. But, the dealership went to the next level for me, and specifically told GM that I was actually driving a LONG way to get to them. When GM heard that, they changed their strategy.

They told the dealer tech to remove the relay that was just installed and install the late '04 actuator instead, because they didn't want to take a chance on me getting another bad relay. GM said that this particular actuator would fix the problem for sure. They even had the parts manager check the manufacture date on an actuator they had in stock. The parts manager said that GM was pretty emphatic about the part's manufacture date.

Now, when the tech was first explaining to me over the phone what the GM Tech Center wanted him to do, I did not know at the time how the actuator communicated with the BCM. At that time, I thought the actuator was computerized, and sent the signal to shut-off fuel.

So, when the tech said the new actuator would ensure that the car never shut-off fuel again, I assumed (erroneously, from what I can see now) that the new actuator programmed NOT to send the shut-off fuel signal.

Once I got to the dealership, I got to watch the tech do the job. He showed me both the old and new parts. And, I specifically remember saying something like, "So, the new actuator does NOT send a signal?" I remember that he replied that the new actuator did still send a signal, and I think I remember him saying that it sent the signal differently, or something along those lines, and that GM said that the new actuator would take care of the fuel shut-off problem. I asked the the tech if this had ever been done before, and he siad that GM told him that this is what fixed the problem for hundreds of other people.

Now that I see how everything works, and combined with the events that have taken place with my car, it makes sense that the new actuator might now be sending that OK signal all the time. Think about it, when a car's steering is locked normally, you really can't start the car anyway, because you can't even turn the key to start the car, so who cares if the fuel is not electrically disconnected?

And, another member posted in one of these column lock threads that he has a late '04, and his column locks like a normal car. So, when I put all this firsthand information together - your knowledge, pics, and understanding of the column lock system... my experience with the 04006C recall, seeing all the parts, and the data gathered from the technicians.... and the late '04 owner's experience report that his steering still locks, it would seem as though an "always-ok" signal is pretty much the only way the new actuator would fix my fuel shut-off problem, as well as work fine with a locking plate, especially given the fact that late 04's are exempt from the latest 04006C recall, you know what I mean?

 

So I'm wondering why GM didn't go this route for the latest recall on all these Vettes instead of removing the column lock all together.

 

I don't know if I believe that the late 04s with this other actuator also have a no fuel shutoff if the actuator keeps the steering wheel locked. That's exactly what GM doesn't want to see happen.

The new actuator is probably designed differently so it's failure rate is much much less than the other design. I bet it still has switches in it that talks to the computer to let it know if it's locked or unlocked. And if the computer sees that it's locked, and the car starts to move it will still shut down the fuel when 1 mph is reached.

 

I'm no computer geek or anything, but...if the actuator just has micro switches, it seems almost TOO simple to me that the surefire fix would be to:
1. Remove either the locking plate OR the entire actuator to prevent steering wheel from ever locking up, and
2. Connect the two wires on the actuator micro switch (in other words bypass the switch) that tells the computer "column locked, shut off the fuel" thus preventing the fuel from ever shutting off.

I am obviously missing something as this would be WAY too easy and as cheap as it gets for GM. All that would be involved would be labor. No parts required.