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I pulled a 2009 Maxima into the bay with no start, no crank, no nothing from the push button. Nine times out of ten on these it is the steering lock. Here is exactly how I diagnose it and swap it.
I had a 2009 Nissan Maxima come in with a no start, no crank, no anything type of issue. You press the key fob and nothing happens. The dash stays in lock mode. Right away people want to blame the fob, so I checked it. It was the correct key fob and there was nothing wrong with the battery. The car still would not respond to any push button input.
That symptom, plus a little message on the dashboard, is the fingerprint for this problem. When one of these cars does not do anything off the button and you get that message, the steering lock has failed. I have a tool I made out of an old steering lock that I use to verify it, but honestly I have yet to diagnose one of these where the steering lock was not the problem. Nine times out of ten, really 9.9 times out of ten, that is your answer.
This is a very common problem on this body style Altima and Maxima, somewhere around 2008, 2009 and 2010. The steering lock assembly, which some folks call the electronic steering column lock, sits under the steering column behind a panel. It is the part of the system that has to release before the car will let you start. When it fails internally, the car reads it as still locked and refuses to crank, so you get the dead push button and the dash message.
The reason it looks like an electrical or security problem is that nothing moves and nothing clicks. But it is a mechanical and electronic unit that wears out, not your fob, not your battery, and usually not the start button itself. That is why I always verify the lock before I start throwing other parts at it. On this job it saves people a lot of money guessing.
First thing you do is take the cover off at the bottom of the column. There is a lower panel that just pops off, so pull that. Get a light in there because once that panel is off you will see a black screw in the corner inside. Take that screw out and set it to the side.
Then you have to take the side panel off too. It pops off the same way. Work it loose, pull that piece off, and get it out of the way. Once those are off you can pull the lower dash trim back on both sides.
Behind there you will run into an electrical connector for the HVAC. Unplug that so you can move the piece out of your way. You can leave the rest of the stuff over on the side plugged in, you do not need to pull all of it. For the HVAC piece, there is a hose that attaches to a sensor. Just yank it off. It is a little hard to pull but it comes right off, and that separates it so you can set it aside.
With all that pulled back you will see the steering lock assembly sitting right there on the column. That is the piece you are changing.
Here is the part that trips people up. The steering lock is held on with two safety bolts. They are smooth, and the heads break off when the unit is installed from the factory so you cannot back them out with a normal socket. There is no hex, no flats, nothing to grab.
You have two ways to get them out. You can drill them, which is a long, miserable way to do it, and I am not going to do that. Or you can use a twist socket, the kind made to take off rounded off bolts and nuts. That is what I use. You can get one pretty much anywhere, Home Depot, Sears, wherever. The size you want is 11 mm.
The good news is these bolts are not on very tight, so they should not be hard to remove. The trick is you have to press forward on the socket while you turn the ratchet outward so it bites. Get the twist socket on the bolt, press in, and spin it out. There are two of them, one on each side in those holes. Once both are out, the unit just pops down and comes right off the column. Unplug it and it is out of the car.
Installing the new one is straightforward, nothing fancy. It goes in the reverse order of how it came out. You set the new lock up inside the steering column where the old one lived, and then you deal with the bolts.
The new bolts have a little separation ground into the head. When you tighten them to the proper torque, that head part snaps off, and that is by design. That is the anti theft feature. You screw them all the way in, and you can use an electric ratchet, an air ratchet, or just do it by hand. Keep driving them until the ball heads break off. Do both of them, and once both heads pop off you are done with the bolts.
After that, plug the lock back in, put all your panels and trim back together, and start the car up. That is it.
Be careful under there. The metal brackets around the column are really sharp and they will cut your hands up. There is one bracket in particular that is right near where you are working. It is held on by four 10 mm bolts. It is not really in the way, so you can leave it if you want, but taking it off may save you from getting cut. I was being a little lazy and left mine, but if you bleed easy, pull it.
The other thing is diagnosis. Before you tear into the dash, make sure the symptom matches: no crank, no response off the push button, and that message on the dash. On these 2008 to 2010 Altima and Maxima cars that points at the steering lock almost every time. Verify it if you have a way to, then do the swap. This is not a hard job, it is mostly about getting the panels off, beating those security bolts with the right socket, and not slicing your hands open on the way out.
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