No need to keep the car all day. It's a 20 minute job. 30 if the mechanic is slow.

1/20/2014 - My car would not start this morning. The "key" light all the way to the left lights up (NOT the one that tells you there isn't a key in the car).

I can open the doors and hatch just fine (lock/unlock) but cannot start my car. I tried both keys and tried putting them in the port on the dash.

My dealer (Stadium Nissan in Orange CA) says that there is no recall announcement on my VIN (2010 Z). I am getting the car towed to the dealer tomorrow morning and they will diagnose the problem. The service writer I always deal with says that if their tech says it's the steering lock, they will be happy to call Nissan and see if we can get it covered (my car is out of warranty).

I got stranded like this a few weeks ago. I gave the steering lock module a few good hits and it started right up.

I went straight to the dealer and they found it wasnt done.

Happened to me tonight (Sat, 1130 pm) coming home from work, stopped to get gas..then got in, got the light, and wouldn't start :( warrenty tow service to Stadium Nissan. Have to wait till Monday to see when they can get it done.

Update: Stadium Nissan did NOT have the part on hand. They said I have to wait till tomorrow for them to get it in and then it would still take 3-4 hours to complete the repair. I called Connell Nissan (where I bought the car from) and they have 9 but they are assigned by VIN to other cars. Anyone know if this is true?

took me 15min to do the swap... and have a working spare in the trunk at all times. :D

just called and checked they said the previous owner had it fixed a month before a bought the car. im glad i don't have to deal with that now, i remembered him saying he had to take it to the dealer but i couldn't remember what it was for

even though it has been "fixed" it may eventually fail again. only way to prevent this is to pull the fuse or cut the wire (see Kenchan's diy).

my diy was to swap the steering lock itself... this triggered the other permanent solutions later on as we later found even RevD died after the recall, and some folks didnt want to pay $500 for the lock itself prior to the recall. :D

the brown wire cut diy was done by fritz.
also another option, the fuse pull diy was done by baer and daisuke.

South Florida 2010 370z Steering Lock Failure
 

Hey guys, Kinda new here. Joined back in May however I just recently ran into this steering lock failure yesterday. I was at work and paid to have it towed to Naples Nissan on Pine Ridge. The car is just recently out of warranty and they want $1,300+ to repair their defective part. Is there anyone I can talk to in order to get this taken car of the right way? Where Nissan owns up to their failure and responsibility?

-Alec Whitehead

IIRC, it is covered under a TSB or recall. Call other dealers until you find one that knows what they are doing. You may be able to get the ESCL into the unlocked position by beating on it. If you get it free, pull the fuse. See link in my sig for more info.

I see you have a 2010 Z. I think there's a possibility you have the Rev D steering lock. This is the lock used to replace the one for vehicles listed in the recall and the one used until some point during the 2011 or 2012 model year when they got rid of it entirely in the US models. Unfortunately, Rev D is still prone to failure - there were several recorded instances of it happening on this forum even prior to the recall being issued.

If you do have a Rev D model, SouthArk is right: your best bet is to beat on the unit to try to get it to unlock and then pull the fuse. His signature link should have all the info you need.

If you have an older version of the ESCL, then you probably fall under the recall. Tell the dealer to quit being stupid and double check whether your VIN is part of the recall.

I no longer have a 370 so I can't run out in the garage to check, but, IIRC, you can see the ESCL label if you stick you head down in the footwell and look up. If you have a rev D unit, as per JARblue, Nissan won't fix it for free ( :shakes head: ) If it's a rev C or older, they are supposed to take care of it.

Whatever the outcome, I highly recommend that you disable the lock motor ASAP. I suggest pulling the fuse (what I did to my '09). If you don't mind cutting "The Brown Wire", that's an easier job. See link in sig for more than you really want to know about 370Z ESCLs. There's even a repair/rebuild DIY, if you are so inclined.

I just went outside to take a look for myself (and maybe snap a photo of the label) and realized my Z is at the dealer this morning lol

So far I have talked to Naples Nissan and they wont budge. The car will have to remain there for now. I called Nissan Corporate and they told me the Regional Manager will be in touch with me before the end of tomorrow's business day. I called another local Nissan Dealer and talked with the head of the service department and he was much more knowledgable and polite. He informed me that the VIN doesnt fall in the range of vehicles affected by the service bulletin but that doesnt mean that someone higher up cant grant "good will" and have the dealership repair it free of charge. Im already in the hole with towing and diagnostics, theres no way I want to spend $1,300 more. I'd hate to have to threaten an email to the CEO Mr. Ghosm, talk to the local media, and maybe legal action. Come on Nissan...

And about the hitting the module, I tried with my palm as well as the wheel locknut and it remained unresponsive. I would love for it to come out of this state then I would just pull the 10amp fuse. Thatd be easy as pie...

Thanks for the input fellas. Does anyone know of any other way to get it out of lock mode? I would really prefer just getting it fixed then cutting the brown wire so it doesnt happen again. Sad at 68k Miles she was running like a dream and now she wont even turn on and they are holding me hostage for 1300 bucks.

Your questions have been answered already. Click on the "Steering Lock Links" link in my sig.

In a nutshell, if beating on it doesn't work then you have to repair the unit yourself (not for the faint of heart) or replace it (it's not an easy DIY, but not that difficult either).

Do you get lots of service done at the dealer (or have you bought lots of cars from them)? If you spend lots of money there, you are a good candidate for "good will" service.

Tell them the Rev D model had failures prior to the recall even being issued. And then they just got rid of it all together. I cannot imagine how big of a hassle it would be for the dealers if every Z on the road still had an ESCL in it. Nissan deserves to take it up the rear for the ESCL fiasco :shakes head:

its kinda funny i still have my working rev b and c. :p

Shes Alive!
 

Hey guys, thanks for all the help! So after getting my car towed 23 miles on Monday, hassling with Nissan and their utter BS, and making a couple trips to the dealer where it was parked dead: I fixed it myself! Yesterday after I got off of work at 5pm I went straight to the dealer the 2nd time but this time with a hammer a mirror and a light. I layed the mirror on the drivers side floor under the steering collumn and aimed the light at it with one hand and had the hammer in another. My friend who was there with me was hitting the push start while I was banging away at the steering lock module. All the sudden we heard "CLICK" and it went from lock to "ACC". I shouted "WOOOOOO" decently loud in the Nissan service garage. I then engaged the clutch started her up and did a 4k rev on a cold start. (I know I know, I was just too happy to hold it in) I was muttering to myself saying not today Nissan, thats MY $1,300! :owned: Needless to say they took the car from right next to 2 brand New GTR's and then parked it outside, I happily paid the miniscule $106 Diag fee and was on my happy way :driving:. We went to my buddies house and instantly popped the hood and pulled the 10amp fuse and she has been working like a charm since. :tup:

Nice work! :tup:

I find it funny that Nissan thinks Rev D is still ok for 370Z owners, but GT-R owners got a recall that included Rev D. Wait... that's not funny :shakes head:

I bet I activated my ESCL more times in the first two months of ownership than you have in 5 years of ownership :p

:ugh:..

:ugh2:...

my :p should have been more like a :wtf2:

:icon17:

So my 2010 Nissan 370Z failed for this very issue recently. Same part number as mentioned in the campaign notice and the dealer confirmed the fix is to replace it with the D model steering lock.

Apparently my VIN isn't entitled to a free repair despite everything being exactly the same. I opened a case with Nissan Consumer Affairs and they called me and told me they are unable to provide any assistance with this repair. I asked why when everything is identical to the campaign information and she bullshitted me saying they use different suppliers and only some are covered.

At this point I'm out over $1200 for this stupid repair because I couldn't get my car into Acc by hitting the steering lock to get the fuse pulled.

I cannot believe Nissan is refusing to honor this repair with all of the facts provided.

Does anyone here know of any escalation points within Nissan USA I could contact about this?

My case was escalated up to the executive specialist with the office of the VP. They are claiming that despite it failing in the exact same way as the others the supplier tied to my VIN did not have a justifiable reason to be recalled like the others.

Now they are looking into a "good will" deed by paying for it but it's taking forever to get an answer from them while my car sits at the dealership fixed doing nothing.

Have you gotten it fixed yet? You might be able to get it started on your own before you shell out for the repair. If you can get it started, you can pull the fuse or cut the wire and tell the dealer to go fuck themselves.

Good will coverage is an option for some. If you buy lots of cars from that dealer or get lots of non-warranty service done, then they might provide coverage because they've made so much money off you over the years that eating $1200 is totally worth it to keep a sucker that keeps spending money happy. Nissan doesn't care for people that do their own service work.

Good luck, sidezero. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

Oh... it looks like they already fixed it :(

Good luck man. Unless you spend a lot of money at the dealer, they are unlikely to do "good will" coverage.

Finally got my car back yesterday from them.

Nissan decided to split the cost 50/50 on the repair. Total cost out of pocket was $564.

The service advisor told me they had 2 other 370Zs come in after mine with the same problem. 1 covered under the campaign, 1 not.

I'm glad Nissan did something for me but I'm still pretty pissed that I had to pay anything at all for a known issue and go through all of this trouble fighting them. They absolutely refuse to update the campaign and take care of their customers. They even tried to make it sound like they were doing me a favor by covering 50% of it.

This vehicle will be sold in the near future and Nissan just lost all future business they might have gotten from me if they would have done what is right.

Sounds like another win for the dumbarse canned message team.. :ugh:

Actually consumer affairs wasn't willing to cover anything at all. I finally resorted to blasting them on Twitter which got the executive specialist with the office of the vp to call me back.

She's the one who "did me a favor" by covering 1/2 of my repair after taking about a week to get an answer for me. I'm pretty sure they were trying to wait me out while my car sat at the dealership fixed to see if I'd just pay for it during that time frame. Luckily I have the ability to work from home.

I have a 2011 model, and my Steering Lock module failed 3 days ago at the worst timing possible (11:30pm in a public parking, first day of freezing temp in Dallas, with rain and wind, and I had a flight to catch the next morning at 9am).

I had the exact same symptoms. The car wouldn't start (not even the electrics) and I got the key light/indicator on the dashboard. I managed to tow it to the dealership (after I towed it to my place first, since it failed on a Sunday night), and they confirmed it was the steering lock failure. They refused to repair it for free, as expected, and the repair set me back $1340. On top of that, the dealership gave me the shortest warranty possible for the new module: 12 months. Really? 1 year of warranty for a module that is bound to fail again in the future? F*k off!

I'm really disappointed that this seems to be the exact same failure as the previous models (09 and 10) and the later models aren't included in the extended 6 years warranty. Really disappointed by both my dealership (they know this is a known manufacturing fault, they should have offered the minimum repair cost possible to their customer) and Nissan.

I intend to call Nissan and ask for some/all of the repair money to be reimbursed. If that doesn't happen, I'll probably sell the car within 2016 and never buy a Nissan again.

I have a 2011 NISMO with 38k miles. Luckily, mine failed in the garage.

That's besides the point, because mine had the latest 48700-JF00D part revision. This proves Nissan's fix is worthless.

I called the closest dealer which happens to be Courtesy Nissan. The SA I spoke with was well aware of the problem but said "the 2011 year model and your VIN" are not part of the voluntary service campaign. She quoted me almost $1,500 for the repair.

So I resorted to using the well documented methods of fixing it myself. In the end, I had to buy a new SLU 48700-JF00D from Courtesy at the cost of right at $700. I changed out the part myself and no surprises here, the car fired right up.

I called Nissan Consumer Affairs and opened a case. The agent said the same thing as the dealer, the same old story of your car used a different supplier so you are not included in the campaign. After some arguing she gave me a case number and said a regional person would call me.

I doubt anything will happen but this is my first and last Nissan. What a poor excuse of how to fix a SAFETY issue.

On a side note, there won't be any good will reimbursement for me. I don't trust the dealers near me and perform all my maintenance myself.

First, go pull the fuse if you haven't already. Then, if I were you, remove the new unit, return the new one, and get your money back. I don't think you need to have one installed. Or maybe you do and you need to install the old broken one. Regardless, if you pull the fuse correctly, the car should work just fine without the new unit :twocents:

I pulled the fuse right after the car started. So yeah, I had to spend the cash for the part and then bypass the part. Yeah me ....

The parts department was very specific, "are you sure this is the part you need and you can't return it because it's an electrical component."

Unfortunately I had a flight to catch the following morning, so I didn't have the time (or clarity) to go through all the information online. Otherwise I'd probably have done the same, either get the car running and pull the fuse or buy an ESCL unit and replace it myself.

Anyway, after opening a case with Nissan Consumer Afairs, they called me back and offered a $500 reimbursment. I insisted in getting the full amount reimbursed ($1330), but they refused.

Fuckin' bastards :shakes head:

Maybe give 'em the old Discount Tire treatment ;)

is there a guide anywhere to show how to remove the unit from the car. I can barely see anything to unbolt when looking under the steering wheel.

there's two security screws on the steering lock. the screw heads break off at torque, so u have to use a pair of long nose pliers to remove the 2 bolts.

try laying on your back on the floor board and look up under the steering column with a flash light. it will be in your face. :)

Nissan offered $500 and advised that even though the same Year, Make and Model and same issue is included in the recall---my Vin was not....so I am only offered $500.00---where can we go?? Ideas??? Sounds like a huge Lawsuit for Liability!!!