Steering Wheel Locked During Driving

[NE98]

Hey All,

Thanks for taking the time to read my question.

Basically as the title says, a little while back I was driving on a 50 road when all of a sudden my steering wheel completely locked and I couldn't move it at all, like it would be if you'd locked your car. Luckily the road was straight and I was able to bring myself to a safe stop without anyone crashing into me. I tried turning the car on/off again repeatedly and tugging the steering wheel to get it to move to no luck. I eventually called out my breakdown cover who came and tried the same as me - turned it off and on again and wriggled it until eventually it popped loose and started to move again.

I haven't had this issue since and when I spoke to the guy at the breakdown he just informed me Ibiza's are prone to electrical failures and this sometimes happens. I've never really thought about it again until now as my partner has started to use my car and I'm worried it could happen to her at some point as she does a lot of driving on the motorway.

Anyone got any ideas what happened and whether it was just a one off?

 

[jcbmally]

Hmm, if it is electrical then it could be a faulty solenoid. I’d get it checked out asap.
Wife had it happen once but that when she just started it and it wouldn’t move, switched off then back on and it was fine. Car has gone now though but it happened twice with her on startup.

 

[RUM4MO]

As above, get it looked at and play safe if no fault found and get the steering locking mechanism replaced, that is not a issue that I'd want any of my family experience.

 

[NE98]

Appreciate the reply from both of you, it's been a while and never happened again so I completely forgot about it. As soon as I remembered and thought about it happening to my partner caused me to panic a little!

It happens on startup now and again but only ever once while moving. Will look into getting it checked out then, thanks all.

 

[martin j.]

Had to replace the steering lock mechanism on a Polo once as it was very hard to release and start the car, not the worst job but fiddly, need to to bore out the retaining bolts IIRC.

 

[RUM4MO]

Well, one day when my wife had a still newish, Ford Fiesta 1.6SI - the one with the Zetec engine, we were out for a run in the country, something rattled and fell down from behind the under dash trim, after we got to where we were going, I bent down and picked up a long bolt that had what looked like a "snap off" head - ie a security bolt - I quickly found that it was from the steering lock assembly, and the remaining one was very slack! So much for quality and security, I tightened them both back up but didn't manage to snap the heads off. So that one would not cause any issues if that assembly needed replacing!