The squeaky wheel--does it need oil?

Took my Mondial for a drive today and noticed a pretty bad squeaking sound from just behind the steering wheel. It is a lower pitched squeak, and its pretty loud. It only occurs in the first 45 degrees of rotation. At first I thought the plastic cover was rubbing, but I have ruled that out. Unlike the higher pitched squeak I occasionally get from just behind the wheel in really cold weather, this one is not weather dependent. I am reluctant to keep driving it until I know what is going on because its not a very pleasant sound and would rather not destroy an otherwise sound steering rack. My options are (1) take off the cover and start going to work or (2) taking it to Algar Ferrari and letting them figure it out. I have no problem getting my hands dirty, but have no interest in taking the column cover off, only to find out there is nothing I can do with a set of hand tools and the suggested grease or oil to correctly address the problem.


Any thoughts?

 

Ok, I took the cover off and the sound is coming from right behind the Steering wheel hub and inside the Commutator housing. Its sounds like something rubbing together--sort of like a door squeking. The steering column is dry and I don't see any signs of leaking. The sound has a rubbing sound to it, like two things scraping together. It started without warning, which leads me to believe something has come loose within the housing, rather than a lack of lubricant or something, which I would imagine would start small and get louder. It also begins occurs before enough steering is induced to even activate the lower shaft. Another words, I don't have to put any stress on the rack whatsoever for the sound to occur.

 

Yes. Funny story. From what I recall our mechanic was on vacation at the time so I called Algar Ferrari, who wanted to take my entire steering column apart to "find" the source of the squeak (estimated labor 5 hours). I thought that sounded silly since I knew exactly where the sound was coming from, but they flatly ignored me. So I waited until our mechanic returned from vacation. When i called him he told me to drive by and he could fix the problem in 5 minutes. When I got there he was waiting with a Qtip filled with some kind of grease (I forget the type now), which he put right behind the wheel as I turned the wheel side to side (on a lift of course). Over a year and almost 4.5K miles later, the problem never returned.

I heart Mike Pechstein (Jay and my mechanic)

 

I wish I remembered. My gut tells me that it right behind the steering wheel hub. I will call him on Monday and ask him.