Took a drive over the roughest roads in my area, 1 more thing I notice: over uneven roads, chuckholes, etc,, it drives straight without having to overcompensate the steering wheel to keep it straight. Holding the steering wheel with tight steering keeps it straight over uneven roads!

info on upper shaft replacement

Remember to secure the steering wheel so it don't spin. NOTE: you do not need to remove the steering column completely, just remove the 4 bolts that hold it to the dash and slide it towards the drivers seat(through the opening on the knee bolster frame), just enough to remove the upper shaft..



http://schwarttzy.com/wp-content/upl...eel-Column.pdf

 

Thanks hummerz we just purchased a 07 with the classic symptoms and sure enough shafts are shot so we also ordered from your site in post, prices have even gone down a few dollars. This is our first h3 but we do have a 07 h2 in the garage and it is nice to see an active forum as eclova has slowed down quite a bit. Thanks again happy hummin

 

OK got both shafts installed yesterday, It was not to difficult of a job and she drives like a dream now. No overcorrecting of the steering, no noise at all.The only advise i can give is the night before i soaked all shaft extensions with kroil or you can use pb blaster everything came off real easy because of all the rust buildup this should make the job easier when you do it.Thanks for the info

 

Nice work! Yes, kroil oil and pb blaster are always a good idea when removing bolts/metal (I have both on my shelf). Great advise!
Post some pics of your old shafts. Thanks

 

I got the new lower shaft and removed the wheel well liner, the skid plate and sprayed pb blaster on both bolts. i tried moving the lower bolt before spraying anything and it didn't budge so I'm hoping the pb blaster does its job. It's a tight fit under there so I think the longest part will be figuring which combination of ratchet extensions to use to get the bolts undone. Can't wait to swap it out tomorrow! Thanks for all the pointers!

 

to remove to lower bolt i was able to get my hand in from wheel well, right hand and with a 3/8 ratchet get on the bolt. That is a extreme tight area but i bet that would be easier. Also when you do get it out you can use a round bar if you have one to punch the upper part of the joint off the shaft or something similar with a hammer from underneath without having to remove skidplate. Good luck

 

Well I got the lower shaft installed today and with all the help in this thread it only took maybe a half an hour. It helped that I got the wheel well out of the way yesterday and got a good look at what I was going to be doing to familiarize myself with everything. I used the bungee cord to keep the wheel straight like Hummerz suggested. I also used pb blaster the night before. The top bolt was easy and I used the trick of turning the wheel so I could better access the lower bolt from underneath. I tried it from the wheel well but it was so tight I couldn't budge it from there. The only thing I didn't realize but should have, is that once I unbolted the top bolt, I needed to remove the lower shaft from the upper shaft in order to turn the wheels. The lower shaft was in bad shape as you can see, but the upper shaft looked even worse so I'm going to order that and replace that too. The steering is much tighter and I'm looking forward to even more improvement once I replace the upper shaft. Thanks for all the tips and being the pioneers which made my job much easier today.

Ben

 

Installed the upper shaft yesterday and it was much harder than the lower shaft. Navigating under the dash made it take forever and caused quite a few scrapes and scratches. With all the advice everything went well so thanks to Hummerz for the instructions and pics. Steering feels much more responsive but I'm still getting that "gritty" feeling even when I turn the steering wheel only a half inch in either direction. I might take it somewhere and see if they can diagnose the problem then I'll see if I can fix it myself. Thanks again for the post Hummerz