Steering wheel tilt slipping

[altruego]

I've got an '04 S and recently the steering wheel tilt lock has been slipping. It holds when the steering wheel is in higher positions. But it's not holding very well in lower positions.
I leave it higher for daily driving but like to have it lower for track and AutoX.
Any ideas on what could be going on here and how it could be fixed?
I searched around the forum but couldn't find anything. My apologies if I missed it.

[Nathan]

You didn't miss anything in a search, this is one of the first posts I've ever seen on this subject and believe you me, I've read a LOT of posts. Wish I had something more to offer on this.

[altruego]

Friday evening... a couple glasses of wine down (liquid courage) and I'm ready to tackle this project. What could possibly go wrong?!?!
Surprisingly... everything turned out great.
Here's what I did to fix it.
Popped the knee plate down (takes a pretty sharp tug, see picture)...
took out 2 screws holding the cowling around the steering column together...
removed the lower cowling...
and there was the adjustment bolt!!!
tightened it approximately 1/3 turn and put every thing back together.
It worked!!!

[Jason Montague]

Another mechanical victory for our side.

Jason

[Crashton]

Wonderful & you did it without using any duct tape. Good on ya!

[jbewley]

I know this is a 1st Gen, but it is good to know. The 2nd Gen might me similar.

Jim

[lotsie]

I guess I should check mine, as it has not been moved in years from the lowest position.

Mark

[SilverCarbonFiber]

This thread is the reason I was introduced to M/A. It was such a pain to have the wheel lurch up and throw my MINI and I sideways with no warning. Thanks for the heads-up repair advice.

[rum4]

good job and glad you got it fixed. Maybe you could do a full write up on the repair that way if others have the issue it would in the library here