Serviced my intermediate shaft today on my 2000 SLE. Completed the job, test drove the car, everything worked great.

Started doing some surfing on this forum and found a thread about a problem experienced when a forum member got the intermediate shaft done by a mechanic. After returning home, the forum member noticed a POP in the steering wheel when making a sharpe turn and his "Service Airbag" light went on and all the radio controls on the steering wheel went out.

I got curious, went out to the garage, started the car and cut the wheels sharpely in both directions. When turning the wheel sharply to the right, there was that POP, the "Service Airbag" light went on and all the radio controls on the wheel went out.

Going back to the thread i found there was a statement there that said that, when the intermediate shaft is off, the wheel should either be locked or not turned more than a few degrees because it could cause problems with either the "Wheel position sensor" or the "SIR coil assembly". I don't recall turning the wheel that much but, apparently, either one or both of these items have a problem.

Question: where are the "Wheel position sensor" and "SIR coil assumbly" located? Is there a test that can be done to verify if they are bad? If they are bad, are they "dealer only" items? And, as before, are changing these items something a DIYer can do?

As always, any help will be greatly appreciated.

The SIR coil is at the top part of the steering column. The steering wheel and upper and lower steering column trim covers have to be removed. It appears to be a lengthy process.

To replace the steering position sensor, the entire column has to be removed.