How to Replace Intermediate Steering Shaft 2006-12 Toyota Rav4

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the steering intermediate shaft on this 2010 Toyota RAV4. If you need this part or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description, 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. We want to make sure the steering wheel is straight, so just double check. Make sure it's straight. And then what I like to do is actually take the seatbelt and we're just going to go through, this is just so the steering wheel won't spin while we have the intermediate shaft out. We just move the seat up a little bit and then you can plug the seatbelt in. Then then the steering wheel is not going to move. Pull this out a little more so I have some room, that should be good.

I want to take this panel off right here. Pull the carpet back a little bit. This cover off, I mean and there's two like plastic screws that you can just twist them off. You shouldn't need a tool for this. I guess you could use pliers or even a socket that might fit, but you don't need to. Pull those off. We'll just slide this cover up. Just make sure there's no more in there. It is plastic, so be careful not to break it and there is a slot on the back so you can slide it off the slot. Now we can access this bolt at the bottom. That's the bolt that we're going to take out. Okay, that bolt's right there. So we're going to take that bolt out. Now we're going to take a 12 millimeter socket and ratchet. We're going to loosen up this bolt right here, loosen that up. I'm just going to try to use an extension to make it a little bit easier to get this off. Take this off my hand and slide it out.

Now I'm going to take a straight blade screwdriver and we're just going to go in between here on the base of the steering intermediate shaft and just try to spread this out a little bit. And then just take the screwdriver and just try to pry this up. And if you struggle with this, you could also go from the outside, there's little rubber boot here, you can take that rubber boot off and just give it a tap with a punch or something and try to tap it up, if this is rusted on there or anything. But this one doesn't seem too bad. So let's just slide this up just like this. And there we go, and that's off.

So the next step, we want to remove this bolt right here, but because of the position of the bolt, that's not going to be easy to access. You can try to get it with a wrench and try to loosen that up, but that's not really feasible. So what I'm going to do is I'm just moving the seat forward for a second. What I want to do is just rotate the steering wheel to the right and it's actually going to be in the lock position there, which is okay. I can back up the seat a little bit more.

Now I can gain access to that bolt right here on the side. I'm going to use the 12 millimeter socket and ratchet. Loosen it up. I'm just going to use a electric ratchet because it's going to be easier and quicker. Get that bolt out the rest of the way. Keep in mind how this shaft went in there and you can put the new shaft in the same way. Just use the straight blade screwdriver, just pry this off. I'm just going to use a pry bar, try to pry this off a little bit. And pull the intermediate shaft out.

Here's the old part. Here's the new steering intermediate shaft from 1aauto.com. As you can see, the ends are the same, the splines in the same, has the same U joints. Eight telescopes just like the old one, and the other end is the same. Get yours at 1aauto.com, and you'll be ready to rock and roll.

So this piece right here is on the old one. I'm just going to transfer it over to the new one, just like that. So what we want do is try to align this up best we can. It's close to the old one and came out [static] the old one coming out, taking it out. But I think that's pretty good right there. There's a little alignment pin right there in the shaft. So line up where the base of this thing shaft as, well the top part, but the bottom part of it. Generally it's a good idea to replace these bolts when you're doing this job. But I'm going to reuse ours. So get that lined up the best you can for how you took it out and I'll take the socket and the ratchet.

Now I'm going to use a torque wrench. I'm going to torque this to 26 foot-pounds. Do the best you can with getting a torque wrench in there. It probably isn't too hard to torque this one. The other one might be a little more difficult, but I'll torque this to 26 foot-pounds. All right, that's good. All right, at this point move the seat forward a little bit, turn the key on, it's important that you have the battery disconnected at this point. You don't want the electronic steering to take over when you do this, and then now you want to straighten the steering wheel out exactly how you had it when you took the bottom of the steering shaft off. So that looks good. Take the key out. And now I can install the bottom part.

So let's slide this back on. Now with your other hand might be able to just wiggle the wheel a little bit. Just turn it, try to get this to line up. All right, so with that all the way down the next step, you want to come back and look at your wheel location. Double check your steering wheel, make sure it's exactly in the center. If it's off a little bit, pull that up and try another spline. Move it to the left or to the right based on how far off it is. Now you can take the bolt, put the bolt back in. Use a 12 millimeter socket. I'm just going to use an extension to get it in there by hand first. Use the ratchet a little bit. Tighten that up. And again, 26 foot-pounds to tighten this bolt to. But because of the location of the bolt, I'm not going to be able to fit my torque wrench in there.

Now at this point, I can you take this cover, put this cover back over the shaft, just like that. Line that up over the studs, and then push, take these little push retainers. You can just press those on. Alright, put the carpet back. Now we can disconnect the seatbelt. All right, let's reattach the negative cable and take your 10 millimeter wrench. Tighten this up, snug that up. Just wiggle it, make sure it's nice and tight and you're good to go.

Thanks for watching. Visit 1aauto.com for quality auto parts shipped to your door, the place for DIY auto repair. And if you enjoyed this video, please click the subscribe button.