How to Remove Steering Column Cover 2005-16 Toyota RAV4

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1AAuto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the steering column cover on this 2010 Toyota Rav4. If you need parts for your vehicle click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal. We'll use a 10 millimeter wrench. Loosen this nut up and pull the connection off and set this aside. You don't want this to arc out on the battery so make sure it doesn't spring back. On the side of the steering wheel there is a hole right here and there's also one on the other side.

I'm going to take a T30 driver and you're going to find there's a screw in there so it may take a little bit to find it but once you find it loosen it up. It's on there pretty tight. There we go. And the screw is not going to come out it's just going to loosen up so that you can pull the airbag off. All right, that's good. Then I'll do the same on the other side. There we go. With that loose grab the airbag. We can disconnect the connectors, this connector right here, just grab that and try to pull this out just like that. And then these two connectors, for these two connectors I'm just going to use a pick and you want to pull this center piece up first. Get under here. There's a little lock, lock tab just like that. Once you get that up you can get underneath the connector and slide it out. Just be careful not to break these. Just like that.

Then you can grab the airbag. When you place the airbag down place it with the top of it facing up just in case it goes off. You don't want it this way. You don't want it to go off the other. We're going to disconnect these wires right here. Disconnect this one, push down on the tab, slide that aside, and then also we'll disconnect this one as well. Push down on that tab and slide it out. This wire right here, we'll leave that attached. I want to take this nut off and we use a 19 millimeter socket and a ratchet.

I'm going to hold the steering wheel with my other arm and loosen that up. Should be able to do it by hand. Take that nut. I'm just going to loosen the nut not quite all the way off then I'm just going to grab the steering wheel and give it a shake back and forth. The reason you leave the nut on there is so that when it releases the steering wheel doesn't hit you in the face. So that's released. You can also use a puller. You can thread in the puller right there and then press it off but you don't necessarily need a puller. Take the nut off.

Now before you take the steering wheel off, now the steering wheel is not keyed so you could actually take it off and move it over a bit and it's still going to go on fine. So what you want to do before you take this off completely is just take a little felt tip pen and just mark where the steering wheel goes. Then once you go to put it back on you're going to know that it's not in the right position so that way you get it back to where it was. Pull this off. All right. With the clock spring it is kind of dangerous to just leave this out. You don't want this to spin so you can just take a piece of tape and tape it to the center shaft to the column and then tape on the clock spring that way it doesn't spin. I'm sure there's some other methods to prevent this from spinning. For right now we'll do that.

Once I get these covers off I can tape it on the outside. Just going to take a straight blade screwdriver or a pocket screwdriver and just go right in here. Just pry this part down right here as well. Just release this. Lower the adjuster right there and just pull this off. With the adjuster loose then you can pull the whole student column out just like that. Release that. Slide this off and the top part just slides up just like that.

When I go to put the top back on the tape is going to be covered up. So what I'm going to do is just take another piece of masking tape and tape from the front right here just to prevent this from spinning and I can take that tape off. It doesn't have to on really good, or tight, or anything. There may be some other methods to keep this from spinning. If you have any methods leave your comment below.

So let's line this top up. There is a little tab right here, it's going to get lined up up there. Locked that in place and take the bottom. Now where the adjuster handle is you're going to have to slide that through the slot lower tab. And line this up. Go over the key cylinder and just line this up and lock it back in place. That looks good. Now we can lock the steering wheel lock. All right, carefully take that masking tape off. Slide these wires through here. Make sure the clock spring doesn't spin. And line the steering wheel up with the mark that you made before you took it off. And take the steering wheel nut, put the nut behind the wheel. Tighten that nut down.

Then I'm going to take a 19 millimeter socket and a torque wrench. Torque this nut to 37 foot pounds. There we go. All right. Now I'm just going to connect the smaller connector right here. That goes to the cruise control switch and then this bigger connector that connects to the steering wheel button right there. Now we want to plug these connectors in. Make sure you don't twist these all around. I'm actually going to connect this black wire right here first. It's actually the ground for the horn. That's what makes the horn work. And plug the orange connector on the orange side just like that. Lock it in place and then the black one on the black side and lock it in place. Make sure those wires aren't twisted, anything weird. They look good.

Just line this up, it goes right there. And take your T 30 driver, you're going to do one side of the time. Get that on there and tighten that up and now we'll tighten up the other side. So, I'm just tightening these up. Make sure they're good and snug. Now, if you have the ability to use a torque wrench you're going to torque these to 78 inch pounds. I'm not going to be able to do that becuase I can't put a torque wrench on the end of my driver but just doing the best I can. Let's reattach the negative cable and take your 10 millimeter wrench. Tighten this up, snug that up. Just wiggle it and make sure it's nice and tight. You're good to go.

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