I have a friend that has a 95 Riv that for some reason the steering column seems to have loosened on the inside of the car. You can take the wheel and move the column up and down. It still function properly but I had a technician tell me that the only way to fix it was to replace the whole column.
Has anyone seen that and if so any help to resolve it would be most appreciated.
Thanks!

Is the movement up and down around the tilt area?

All GM columns can be repaired I have yet to see one that cannot be fixed. The only factor is price! As in how much you are willing to spend! GM sells every single part of a column all you need to do is take it apart and order it.

Usually what happens on these columns is the pivot pins or screws come loose on the tilt mechanism. I take aprt the column and add threadlocker to the screws then reinstall them. Its not that costly in parts but requires some time. If you took it ot a dealer the charge would be in the neighborhood of 2.5 hours. Best bet is to take the car to a dealer and ask for a quote on repairs and let them do it.

I am the friend that he mentioned above. I have since become a member of these forums. The movement on the steering column appears to be in the same area as the tilt pivot point, but with one variation. The tilt allows vertical movement only, but the looseness in the column is basically diagaonal. It moves in a straight line between the lower left portion of the steering wheel and the upper right portion. It is tight in all other axes (directions). In other words with the tilt mechanism locked into position there should be no movement of the column, but my column has diagonal movement from approximately 8:00 to 2:00 if you view your steering wheel like a clock when you are sitting in front of it. Do you think it could still be loose pins or screws?
Thanks

If I remember right the tilt is bolted down by 4 screws and I would bet the screws are loose or the pivot is worn out.

I may be to late with this reply, but chances are the pivot pin fell out.
I had the same problem. I removed the dashboard to access the column,
and noticed that the pin was missing. The pin is located on the right side
of the column. Just get any pin of the same diameter, cut it down to to the right length, open it up a bit and tap it back in. Hope this is on time and helps.

Thanks for the info. I was just going to live with it as it does not really affect anything other than my piece of mind. My heater core started leaking a couple of days ago and I don't have the patience to do that job so I dropped it off to the dealer yesterday. I told them to look at the loose steering column while they were in there so I will post their fix when I find out Monday.

OK - The dealer fixed my loose steering column. Here is what it says on the invoice:

Steering shaft pivot bushing not in correct alignment. Re-Align shaft.

$137.78 Labor

Mine is exactly the same. Thanks for the info guys, it is very much appreciated. Is it a big job to remove the dash... is there an easier way to get to it?

If I remember right the tilt is bolted down by 4 screws and I would bet the screws are loose or the pivot is worn out.


I'm having a similar situation. Mine moves from side to side and up and down (small movements). Do you think it's in the pivot joint? It looks likes the whole colum (plastic coverings) is moving when I watch it closely.

Another problem that the loose steering has caused, that may not be obvious is an intermittent failure to start. Sometimes if I turned the key, nothing would happen apart from a faint weak buzz from somewhere under the dash.

Someone else told me that Rivs have a start interlock on the column, and unless the wheel is in one of the recognised tilt positions, it won't allow the car to start. Sure enough, whenever I experience the start problem, I hold the wheel in another position and the car starts. Hope this helps someone.

I still haven't taken the dash out and tried to fix the loose column. I was hoping that someone might shed some light as to the easiest way to remove it. I have found that the dash on some cars is a nightmare to remove.

As you can see from the above posts I had the problem, but paid the dealer over $100.00 to fix it. The 12 month/12000 mile warranty was just about to expire when all of the sudden the steering column became extremely loose just like it did the first time. No gradual getting worse. It returned to the loose state instantly. My dealer acknowledged that I brought it to them while their labor was still under warranty, however just like I thought they would they managed to tell me it was not the same problem and that this time is was a combination of several things. They were not specific on the invoice and sort of disguised the labor with some other work I was having done. I feel certain that it was probably the same thing, but they probably snookered me into paying for them to fix it again.