A squeaky steering wheel.

[Brando]

Strange thing has been happening as of late. There is a strange squeaking sound coming from my steering wheel. Not all the time, it seems to happen after i have been driving for a short while.
The only way i can describe it is that it sounds just like a creaking hinge on an old door, except higher pitched.

It SEEMS to be eminating from the wheel, and not the column, but i could be wrong.
I see through a seacrh that that it may have sopmething to do with the power steering pump and that i should flush it.
Any leads on how to do that?

Any other ideas what might be causing this?

 

[Turbozombie]

Yes, I have this noise also, anyone with some ideas what might need to be lubed?

 

[hworksinc]

Could be the steering wheel rubbing on the plastic surrounding the steering column. Never had that happen on my Explorer, but my Escort had that problem really bad. I just removed the plastic around the steering column and applied a small amount of teflon grease on the area that was rubbing - no more squeak.

If there's no evidence of rubbing, then it could be something in the steering column itself - if the sound is coming from the steering wheel and not under the hood, then I doubt it's a PS pump issue.

 

[TheJackal]

If it were the PS pump, the noise would probably be coming from under the hood--not from the wheel itself.

I have what sounds like a plastic-on-plastic rubbing sound when the steering wheel is turned, someone here said it could be the clockspring. I don't have any trouble with the airbag or cruise control buttons so I haven't bothered to replace it.

The formal name for the clockspring in the manual is the Air Bag Sliding Contact.