Clock Spring Saga....

[Mr_James_88]

Has anybody else encountered this?

 

I purchased my 2015 vRS estate in April and it came with a very clicky steering wheel.  By this, I mean that when you turned the steering wheel more than 90 degrees in either direction there was noticeable "clicking" from immediately behind the wheel, as if some trim was catching.  At this time, there was no airbag light and my multi-functional steering wheel worked perfectly.

 

Attempt 1

Took the car to Mitchell Skoda and showed one of the lads.  He said straight away, "that's your slip ring, it'll need replacing".

A new slip ring / clock spring unit was ordered at £285 + £220 labour and fitted to the car.

 

Day 1 - completely silent smooth steering, no clicks or noise.

Day 5 - faint clicking starting to return (no airbag light, fully functioning steering wheel)

Day 14 - loud clicking completely returned as before (again, no lights or lack of functionality)

 

Attempt 2

Skoda took the car back and said it's the same unit again, and they'll need to replace on warranty.  So they did this FOC on 30th July.

 

Day 1 - completely silent smooth steering, no clicks or noise.

Day 2 - faint clicking starting to return (no airbag light, fully functioning steering wheel)

 

I've called Skoda today to explain that it's returning.  They didn't really know how to explain this and are asking for the car back to perform a deeper investigation next week.

 

Has anybody else experienced this type of issue with the "clock spring / slip ring" in their car, or experience clicking from immediately behind the steering wheel despite everything working as expected?

The noise distracts and annoys me given that my previous 2013 mk3 had smooth, silent steering.

[Mr_James_88]

Just a courtesy follow up on this, the symptom is now completely resolved with the help of Mitchel Skoda, Cheshire Oaks 👍

 

They completely dismantled the ignition column and investigated the area immediately behind the slip ring unit to find that an adjustable tension bar was pushing too hard against the rear of the slip ring unit, applying pressure to the bearing inside, hence the noise.

 

They simply loosened the screw, moved the bar back by 0.5mm, tightened, and all was resolved.  I don't know what function the adjustable bar has, but I'm pleased it's resolved.  I tried to find a technical diagram to show any nerds on here, but was unable to find one, sorry.

 

Now onto the next little blip.... replacing the drivers window multi-switch unit (due to intermittent issues with the switches not responding).

[Rodge]

Does that mean you wasted £500 on a new slip ring / clock spring unit that you didn't need?