Like many others, I too was having the vibrations in the steering wheel at speeds greater then 65mph. I tried everything else...new rotors, re-balance the rims, I had no bent rims, wheel alignment. All done and I was still having issues.

I decided to try an tighten the 2 t30 torx bolts ("C" in the photo) on the side of the steering wheel with an impact driver. A regular drill wasn't giving me the extra torque i needed but the impact driver was slowly tightening the bolts. Two things changed. The wheel felt firmer when going over bumps and there was NO more vibration at highway speeds up to 100mph.

I believe the photo says to tighten the bolts to 7.2 ft lbs and im sure ive made them much tighter. can someone tell me if there is a drawback to over-tightening these bolts?

 

It has to be completely psychological for you....the steering wheel's actual movement is limited only by the splines on the steering column shaft. You have not limited the movement of the shaft itself.

Those bolts only keep it in place on a lateral plane. I would say that you're lucky you didn't snap or strip them through over-tightening.

 

Wait a minute....as I look at the schematic you provided....it looks like you tightened the bolts that hold the AIRBAG in place. They have no part of the way the steering wheel is attached. It is only held by ONE central bolt and many splines on the column shaft.

If that's the case, you need to replace them immediately. They could break in the event of a deployment.

It's a really stupid idea to start messing with various torques of different fasteners if you're not sure exactly what they do.

 

BG74... Shhhh...

Even though you and I think it couldnt fix his problems... If it helps; I think that was a great fix for him...

I do think that using an impact wrench wasnt a good idea... Fixing a stripped bolt sucks.

 

BG74... You edited your post, I was going to be funny, but your post made me change my mind...

But I do agree that this was a bad idea, and in no way shape of form would this fix a vibration... Rattle maybe, vibration never.

I dont know if you need to replace it.... But I would think very hard about touching it again, if you did strip it or break it you might change the way the air bag deploys. Cross your fingers and hope you didnt cause a big problem...

If this thread was a feeler (oops i broke the bolt), I would suggest that you replace any and all damaged parts... Out of all the air bags in my car, the only one I care about is the drivers side air bag. (when im the only one in the car that is)

 

bring it back to the dealership and DEMAND it be fixed.

 

appreciate the feedback guys. i knew that those 2 bolts held the airbag in place b.c i had to remove them a while back to replace the bulbs in the channel and volume switches on the wheel. they are not stripped and i can loosen them if i need to. thats why i used an impact driver to make sure i didnt strip the bolt.

maybe the bolts were loose to begin with thus causing the airbag cover to shake/rattle and in turn cause the wheel to vibrate. im not sure. bottom line is that the wheel does not shake/vibrate any more but i also want to make sure that i didnt damage the air bag.

 

FWI, torque specs are there for a reason. I recommend following them and using red loc tite on the threads to prevent back out of the fastener (as the factory did). Torque specs are intended to stretch the fastener a certain amount, over torqueing will put the fastener closer to it's failure point, if the airbag does deploy the bolts could break and have unknown consequences. Tightening them to the point it appears you have, is probably a mind over matter issue, unless of course, they were loose to begin with. I would remove the bolts, loc tite them and torque back to spec.

 

scary.

 

Pretty sure he'll be okay. The bolts just secure the airbag in place. I've removed these before on a '99 Honda Accord to replace a deployed airbag. Screws have nothing really to do with the deployment. They just hold the shell of the airbag in. The airbag deploys and just blows a hole into the vinyl cover. Reason they use torx is so people don't mistake them and remove them as we please as most people don't have a torx screwdriver.

With that being said, I had my car serviced recently to replace that stupid cruise backlighting. I wonder if some of my vibration is coming from an airbag vibration from not being tight enough. The gaps between airbag and wheel did look a little larger. Maybe it's not in place yet. Guess I have something to check out this afternoon.

 

I have to diagree with you. If that's the case, why does Honda INSIST the bolts have to be replaced whenever they are removed? If you buy the A-spec steering wheel, it comes with new airbag bolts.

If you've ever had an airbag go off in your face, you know what kind of force it generates. It is truly amazing. It can easily break windshields and even kill. It would have no problem snapping a bolt that's been torqued beyond it's design limits.