Driving my 03 Coupe yesterday and entered a slow right sweeper at about 25 mph coming to a stop light. I start to feel some strange pulling on the steering wheel and the Active Handling started going crazy. Get the car stopped and see Service TCS, Service Vehicle Soon on the DIC. TCS disabled light comes on in the dash. I pull into a gas station and pull the DTC codes and get a C1286 associated with the steering wheel position sensor. I had this issue come up once before about 3 months ago also in a medium speed right hand sweeper but nothing since.

I got up under the dash tonight to check the SWPS at the fire wall. Unplugged the sensor and reconnected. Wires look intact. One thing I did notice is the sensor and green housing it resides in appear to rotate freely on the steering shaft about 45 degrees up or down. I would think that sensor would be locked down on the shaft somehow. Can someone tell me if this rotation is normal or is there a locking tab on the sensor that may have broken that is allowing the sensor to rotate slightly one way or the other on the shaft. Am I looking at replacement of the SWPS? My EBCM was repaired by ABS fixer a few years ago after the dreaded C1214 code so I am hoping the problem is not there. Read a bunch of posts on replacement of the SWPS and seems doable for a back yard mechanic. Any advice is appreciated.

 

TTT Anybody?

 

TTT -Last try. Anybody?

 

The sensor has two parts...a non moving one and a moving one. The bottom line is that its probably worn out. I had the dealer do mine as I didn't want to take any chances with the airbag but many have replaced themselves.