So when this vehicle was about 5 years old with 72,000 miles, I began noticing a weird feeling in the steering. Difficult to describe accurately, but it felt like kind of a sticky/notchy resistance in the steering. Most noticeable at higher speeds on the highway when trying to maintain straight course. Definitely not anything particularly dangerous, but just an annoying steering quirk that progressively got worse.
Turns out it's a fairly rare condition that only afflicts a small percentage of Souls (mostly in warmer, southern states I noticed), and the fault is the rubber coupling/isolator right at the bottom of the steering column where it meets the electric power assist motor. New part was $6, but the labor to drop the steering column and replace it was ~$240 and took about 2-3 hours. One could PROBABLY DIY this repair, but I didn't because I didn't feel like tearing into the dash and steering column that much.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
So when this vehicle was about 5 years old with 72,000 miles, I began noticing a weird feeling in the steering. Difficult to describe accurately, but it felt like kind of a sticky/notchy resistance in the steering. Most noticeable at higher speeds on the highway when trying to maintain straight course. Definitely not anything particularly dangerous, but just an annoying steering quirk that progressively got worse.
Turns out it's a fairly rare condition that only afflicts a small percentage of Souls (mostly in warmer, southern states I noticed), and the fault is the rubber coupling/isolator right at the bottom of the steering column where it meets the electric power assist motor. New part was $6, but the labor to drop the steering column and replace it was ~$240 and took about 2-3 hours. One could PROBABLY DIY this repair, but I didn't because I didn't feel like tearing into the dash and steering column that much.
- jldude84, Panama City, US