The other day I started to notice that the steering column is making noises when it moves. The noise is like dragging a chain through a hole, one clunk after another. It only happens when I start the car and the column is moving from idle to memorized position. The sound of the column going back to idle is smooth and normal. No error or warning on the dash.

What can be the problem?

Thanks.

 

Maya, without hearing the noise personally, I am taking a guess here. But, from playing with model trains, there are a lot of gear noises that I have learned to diagnose and odds are you have a gear that has a chipped tooth up near the drive motor. This will cause the clunking sound that you are hearing. This is where you would need to pull the cover off of the steering column and then move the steering column back and forth to narrow the noise down.

 

Before replacing anything I would lube the column. These easy entry things cycle the column every time the car is started so that mechanism gets a work out.
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