Steering angle position sensor replacement instructions.

[UnfocusedEdge]

For those of you looking to replace your steering angle position sensor here is how you do such a task. This write up if for a 2007 Ford Edge, however may work on other years as well. It can be used as a guild for others even if items are in different locations.

 

First you will need a few tools.

Screw driver with T-20 Torx bit.

18MM socket wrench with extension. At least a 5" should be good.

Small flat head screw driver or knife.

A wire hanger straightened or a small allen head wrench driver.

 

First and most important disconnect your battery and leave it set for 30 minutes. This way you will not have any power stored in your driver side airbag which must be removed.

 

Take your T-20 torx and remove the three screws from the steering column.

 

Here is a better view of where they are located.

 

Now that your 30 minute wait is over remove the driver side air bag. There are two holes, one on either side of the steering wheel. Take your allen head wrench, straightend wire hanger or other tool to insert into these holes and depress the hidden clips. You can pull slightly on that side to make sure it has popped out successfully.

WARNING. Airbags are very dangerous if handle improperly and should be faced upward when removed and sat aside. Never hold the front of the airbag toward your person while handling the airbag if at all possible.

 

Now with the airbag detached you will have to remove the yellow and orange connectors. Be very careful not to damage these connectors and it could be costly to replace them. Use your small flat head screw driver or knife to pop the black retaining clips up. Very little effort is needed in this action. Once up the connectors will simply pull out with little effort.

 

Once that is done there is a black clip next to where the airbag wire are leading to. Simple push on the tab and slide it out. Sorry forgot the picture for this step.

 

With all the wires disconnected remove the steering wheel by taking your 18MM socket wrench and removing the center bolt. This can be seen in above airbag wire picture. After the bolt is removed it might take a little tugging to remove the wheel. Be careful of the wires fed through the steering wheel.

 

Simply tuck the wires left aside. You will notice another wire harness clipped in on the bottom side under the clock spring. Unclip this and just let it hang.

 

Now remove the two torx screws so you can remove the clock spring.

 

Now for the sensor. There is one last harness plug on the back side. Unclip it and let it hang.

 

Time to remove the last two screws.

 

If you bought the sensor new from ford it should be set with the locking clip in place. Remove the clip and be very careful not to turn the inner part of the sensor. If you do turn it back the way you did and align the arrows. Insert the new sensor and put everything back in the reverse order of removal and your done.

 

If you have any questions, comments or concerns let me know.

Edited October 20, 2012 by UnfocusedEdge

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

nice writeup. thank you.

[UnfocusedEdge]

If no one minds I would like to see this get stickied so it doesn't get lost.

[nickagee9]

Fantastic write up!

 

The TCS light in my wife's 2007 Edge SEL Plus AWD had been coming on and staying on and after having the ABS/TCS system scanned we found that the Steering Angle Sensor was the culprit. I managed to pick a new sensor up at a local dealership and a quick google search led me ot this DIY. Now thanks to your detailed instructions and pictures, I was able to replace the sensor and have the car back on the road in no time at all.

 

Thanks!

[UnfocusedEdge]

Glad I could help.

[Mark Sibons]

thank you for all the details. Did you use a Steer Wheel puller? I saw a you tube where they did use one. is worth borrowing one from the auto parts store?

[Mark Sibons]

You are the best THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Your pics and directions were perfect. I just did this on my sisters 2010 Lincoln MKX. The only thing I did differently is to go the auto parts store and borrow a steering wheel puller. I had never used on before but it was a big help. My sis paid me what the dealership wanted for the repair. that was $350 for 1.5 hrs work YES!

[Ryan Maas]

I also had to replace the Steering Angle Sensor in my Edge. I drive a 2010 Edge Sport 2WD.

 

The symptoms were as follows:

• I had seen the stability control light come on a couple of times in the past, typically it was as easy as turning the key off, opening the door, and restarting — fixed it.

• Driving down the road a week ago, and I noticed it come on as I was going highway speed, on dry pavement. I didn't notice anything specifically wrong, other than that the stability light was on... Until I turned off on an exit ramp, and I noticed the car's stability control kick in, then error out quickly. Again, I stopped at a stoplight, turned off the key, opened the door, and restarted. The light stayed off, until I was rounding a corner, and the same thing happened... the stability control kicked in, errored out, and turned itself off (light stayed on).

 

So, what to do? First instinct was to remove the battery for a half hour, to let the sensor reset. That didn't work. After that, I was actually able to make the sensor trip by keeping the car in park, and turning the wheel.

 

First, I called the ford dealership, asking if they had seen this, and what was going on. They told me it would be $135 to have the car scanned... I'm not under warranty or anything, so I have no reason to bring my car there, other than for OEM parts. So, I took it to tires plus, where I bought my last set of tires from — They scanned it for free, and told me that the code was being thrown for a steering angle sensor. they attempted to reset the sensor with the programmer, but that wasn't in the functionality. Again, I could have brought it back to the Ford dealership to see if they could even reset it there with their scan tool – but they wanted to charge me for that scan (even though I already knew what the issue was), and then they would have charged me for any parts and labor on top of that — likely around the $600 mark when done.

 

So, I bit the bullet and just bought a new sensor from Ford. About $160 with taxes — pretty lame for a sensor, but what can you do about it. I was worried that simply installing the sensor wouldn't work, that it would need a flash or something like that. But, I swapped it out quick, and it worked like a charm. The procedure really is easy, I took some of my own pictures to add here.

 

1. First step is to remove the battery cable, and let the charge deplete from the airbag propulsion system. Remove the cable, and wait 30 minutes. Then you're good to start working.

 

2. Insert an alan wrench into the small holes on the left and right sides of the steering wheel. this will release the clips that hold in the airbag. It's a self-guiding pin, so you really can't mess this up too bad. I didn't snap a picture of this one.

 

3. Let the airbag fall toward the driver, so that it exposes the lead wires.

 

 

4. With a small screwdriver, pull up on the black tabs. These should come easily, so if you're cranking on them, figure out what you're doing wrong, and stop that. Because you'll break them.

 

 

5. Remove the airbag, and set aside, outside of the vehicle, face up. You should look like this at this point:

 

 

6. On the underside of the column, remove the three T20 hex head screws, and unclip the bottom half of the steering column fascia. This can be done with a knife or small screwdriver.

 

 

7. Once you're done with that, remove the main nut off of the steering wheel. This is with an 18MM socket and an extension. Super easy. I used a steering wheel puller for this part, but really it wasn't necessary. The wheel was held on with such a small amount of force, that I could have just given it a couple of whacks with a mallet or palm of the hand, and it would have come right off. Before removing the wheel, unclip the black clip with multiple wires feeding to it, found at the top of the airbag cavity. You can see this clip removed in step 5. When removing the wheel, feed the wires through carefully, be sure not to stretch or break any clips

 

 

8. At this point, your steering wheel is off, and your clock spring is exposed. This will have the yellow wire group coming off of it, that plugs into the airbag. You'll need to remove this by taking out the two hex screws that are found at the top-right (1:00) and bottom-left (7:00). this will just slide off and can hang to the side.

 

 

9. Finally, your steering angle sensor is exposed, and ready to be removed. There are just two more screws that need to be removed here, one at the 11:00 position, and one at the 5:00 position. Also, hard to see, but you will need to disconnect the wire harness clip on the rear of the right side, just where my hand is reaching. then there is a very small clip that can be popped out on the right. Once this is done, go ahead and slide that thing out, and get the new one ready.

 

 

10. As mentioned above, be sure to keep the arrows lined up on the inner and outer rings of the new sensor. There is a retaining clip that can remain on, and will release once you push the new sensor into the housing. Place the two screws back in there, and remove the clip. Also don't forget to reconnect the wiring harness on the backside.

 

11. Place the clock spring back on, in the same position as when you took it off (probably should make note of that). Secure with screws, and place the steering wheel back on, in the same position as when you removed it. I didn't bother with torquing to a specific setting, I just put the bolt back on until I felt it was plenty secure. No overkill, but snug. Be sure to feed the wires back through the steering wheel at this point.

 

12. Replace plastic housing, place screws in the underside.

 

13. Reconnect airbag leads, and pop back into the housing.

 

14. Reconnect battery, and you're good to go!

 

Good luck out there.

 

 

 

 

 

[KingRanch06]

Was wondering if you have to do an alignment on the car? I will replacing the sensor this weekend and installing new tires and I wanna do the alignment all at once.

[Ryan Maas]

Was wondering if you have to do an alignment on the car? I will replacing the sensor this weekend and installing new tires and I wanna do the alignment all at once.

Nah, I mean, in my opinion they don't go hand-in-hand. As long as that sensor is lining up correctly, that's one issue solved. If your sterring wheel is crooked, then you need to get an alignment done.

[Kitulu]

Just in case anyone is interested, the torque for the steering wheel nut during re-installation is 35Nm (26 lb-ft)

[pedro2u]

digging up an old thread, but at 150K miles my 2011 finally started getting the Autorac and traction faults, and the code signaled the Steering Angle Sensor.  So following this great thread, and a few videos, I replaced the sensor today.  $46. Wait 30 minutes after disconnecting the battery then actual replacement took 30-45 minutes 

 

Instructions here are spot on with a few differences.  On my 2011 Limited, the airbag connector had squeeze tabs to remove it (easy).  No knife needed to pry it up.  And there was no 18mm steering wheel nut, it was a large torx bolt (W708887S434)........ and finally the 3 screws holding the clock spring were T10's not T20's.  The Steering Angle sensor came out together with the clock spring, there were no separate screws.  Then the Angle Sensor easily pulls right out of the clock spring. Reassembly was a snap, plug the new sensor into it's fixed connectors and then carefully slip the clock spring over it and screw it down and make the connections

 

Thanks again to all for this great thread. Shows that sometimes these threads are timeless

 

Pete

Edited December 13, 2021 by pedro2u