How to fix a 2002 Toyota Camry squeaking steering wheel

This is a brief instructable on how to fix a Toyota Camry suffering from a squeaking steering wheel.

Background: My fiancee drives a 2002 Toyota Camry and the steering wheel squeaks or squawks kinda like a cat every time she turns the wheel more than 120-150 degrees. I finally got fed up with it, read a little on the Interwebs, dissassembled the steering column, realized the sound wasn't coming from behind the steering column, reassembled the steering column, located the origin of the sound, attacked it viciously with WD-40 and smiled after achieving success.

I know this is a pretty straightforward instructable but I know it will help someone, so here it is :-)

Step 1: Parts

Here is what you need:

1 Toyota Camry (or other car with squeaking steering wheel)
1 Can of WD-40
1 Flashlight

Comments

[AJadeW]

Thank you very much for this solution. I sprayed some KW Knock'er Loose penetrant followed by a light packing of SynPower synthetic grease and the results were immediate. You saved me 375.00 my mechanic wanted to repair it.
Thanks again TMonkey

[colincart]

Excellent. had some silicon spray handy and took about a week to get right into it, but no noise now (have put up with it for 2 years)

[BLV]

Very good "trick". I had tried several other things over a period of time and nothing worked. In 2-3 minutes I eliminated the problem. Thanks

[TMonkey]

TY for your TY-motivates me to post more :D
Hopefully you used The Teflon or silicone spray that a previous poster recommended, the WD-40 worked for a few weeks but it came back while the silicone spray is still holding strong! Cheers and keep up the DIY!

[WRX STI]

Thanks a lot.
I had the same problem, and now it's perfect!

[Peter j parker]

I have a 2003 Toyota Camry XLE and my steering wheel squeeks too. I also have a problem when I make a wide left turn the steering wheel will stick. It will only stick occasionally and only on wide left turns. I have taken it to a mechanic but they can't figure it out. The power steering fluid was flushed and that seemed to help for a little while.Toyota cars

[MiKOTRON]

This is a great instructable for a very common Toyota problem. But WD-40 isn't the best stuff to use on rubber. In a few years it will turn into this gummy substance. We use silicone spray at our Toyota dealership. Silicone won't harm the rubber on the boot. Great work finding the source of the noise though!