Special thanks to Korrupt, Fritz and Kenchan for their posts and information.
Who
Those unfortunate souls, like myself whose steering lock has failed. If your lock hasn't yet failed, it is much easier to pull the fuse, buy the bypass harness, or cut the brown wire, so do that instead of this guide.
Why another guide?
Although the information is probably out there, I had to read 100 different threads, and felt like my questions were not completely answered. I found pictures inadequate, information confusing, and Fritz's posts hard to understand. Really, I wanted to consolidate some of the information, and provide my workaround, which I haven't seen anyone else do in the same way.
My method overview
Remove the steering lock, cut it open, remove the board, manually rotate the gear in the downward position (unlocked position), close it back up, and reinstall it.
Step by Step:
1. Remove the steering lock. (from Kenchan's guide)
Stick your head under the steering column and look upwards for the steering
lock. the bottom part of the lock looks like this... it's actually in your face if
you take a good look with a flashlight.
remove the 2 round headed screws using angled needle nosed angled pliers.
it's not torqued in all that tight, but it takes some effort to loosen. once
you get one of the 2 off, you can wiggle the steering lock with your hand
to make the 2nd screw removal easier. Unclip the hardness. The tab is on the top side and easy to unlatch.
2.Chop the damn thing open (From one of Fritz's guides)
This is definitely the worst part. You'll need a Dremel, with a cutting wheel for metal, and a drill with a 3/8" bit. In each indentation, drill about 2mm deep. You're only drilling through the outer layer, and if you're like me, you'll feel the bit poke through the outer layer (and your drill will probably seize). All in all, you will be drilling 8 holes. Next, using the dremel cutting wheel, you should connect each of the two holes together.
Once you have all the holes, and cutting done, you'll have to pry and bend it open. This isn't easy, and you'll see from my pic, I sorta mangled mine. Still better than paying $1000. I would try wedging a thin screwdriver in the crack between pieces, and then hammering it in, as opposed to actually bending the screwdriver. Just be careful not to be pushing the screwdriver against the circuit board inside, or crush the plastic harness connector piece.
3. Pull the Board out.
Using a Torx-10 screwdriver, remove the two screws, and pull the circuit board out.
At this point you have a lot of different options. The two turquoise buttons being hit at the same time is what the car is looking for to let you start it again. In fact, to get my car home from the dealer, all I took with me was the board by itself, plugged it back in to the wiring harness, held the two buttons while I started the car, and then release the two buttons. You could leave it this way forever if you wanted. I didn't like the idea of there being a hole in the bottom of the steering wheel dripping grease, and getting dirt in it, which is the reason for the rest of this guide.
4. Rotate the gear into the downward position
Mine was not locked when I opened mine, but yours might be. I made this youtube video showing how to rotate the gear, and if it's locked how to unlock it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcOFJgJ_iS0
If you look at this picture, you can see what is locking it:
5. Pull the motor off the board
To make sure this thing cannot try to raise the lock again, I pulled the motor off the circuit board. They made it really easy to do. I'm pretty sure this accomplishes the same thing as cutting the brown wire, or pulling the steering lock fuse.
6.(Optional) Super Glue the gear in place.
I wanted a little more security that the vibrations of the car wouldn't slightly rotate it in the other direction over time, so I super-glued the metal center piece to the plastic gear.
7. Put the board back in place, push the metal case back together.
Reinstall your board, put your metal case back together. It will probably hold itself pretty firm anyway. It also can't hurt duct taping it, and wrapping zip ties around it.
8.Reinstall into vehicle
Rather than messing around with the security screws, I went to home depot, and bought Socket Cap metric screws (they're black). Sized M8-1.25 and 20MM. (Sorry, didn't take pictures of it)
Hope this helps those of you out that are facing a $1000 repair, or $524 part. There are some extra pictures below I didn't use just so you can see in better detail what the insides look without taking it apart yourself.
Even Higher Res versions of the pictures are available here as well if you need to print them out.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1027199...eat=directlink
If you guys have any other questions, it's probably better to email me at akmofo at hotmail dot com than sending me a private message.