Until today the steering wheel always locked when in park, no key in ignition. To the point that if the wheel was sharply turned when you shut off the ignition I had to wiggle the wheel to get it to release. I went on a sunday drive today and noticed at my first stop the wheel no longer locks. It was noticeable at every stop today. With the key out in park I can turn the wheel. Not too freely without power steering assist, but it turned over a full turn before I stopped.

Has anyone else had this? If so, is it going to be a big issue and what did you do to fix it? My downloaded owners manual says the passive steering lock only on manual tranny jeeps, my CRD is not.I searched but my google-fu is lacking tonight.

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WK CRD, hot, OME lift, quadratec hard rocks, duratracs, MBRP DPF back exhaust,

SOLD-2006 Red CRD Sport 4x4. Hot, Fumoto, Weeks stage 1, ARP studs .
SOLD-2006 blue CRD Sport 4x4. Eco, Fumoto.

Let me ask you this:
With the key out and foot on the brake pedal, can you move the shifter out of park?

The ignition key tumbler mechanism actuates a pin inside the steering column.
With the key out, the pin falls into place locking the steering wheel. Sometimes you have to turn the steering wheel a little bit to get it to lock.
In my opinion, this is not that big of a deal. But if you really want it fixed you will probably have to take it to the dealer.

Now, there is a separate interlocking mechanism that requires you to have the key on and foot on the brake before you can shift it out of park. As annoying as the feature can be sometimes, I kinda feel this is a more important saftey feature than the steering wheel lock.

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U.S. Army Retired

It may be the pin you mentioned. With the brakes pressed and no key the shifter is still locked.

I did search some more and found old posts saying that its normal so it can be flat towed. That matches my owners manual saying it's only in manual tranny KJ's that have the steering lock. And now I wonder if I was wrong before,confusing it with the forester. I haven't driven the jeep in a month till yesterday, I have only driven it maybe 4 times in 4 months since I drive a company car now.

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WK CRD, hot, OME lift, quadratec hard rocks, duratracs, MBRP DPF back exhaust,

SOLD-2006 Red CRD Sport 4x4. Hot, Fumoto, Weeks stage 1, ARP studs .
SOLD-2006 blue CRD Sport 4x4. Eco, Fumoto.

I'm a different guy with a different Liberty:
I bought my CRD used.
A few weeks later I had the 'No start when turning the key' issue, it was the broken plastic pin in the switch.
After pulling it apart, I only noticed during reassembly that the whole system to lock the wheel and shifter had been removed some time in the past.
It's just not there.

I have no kids, I'm the only person in my household, and the cat doesn't know how to open the door, so it's not an issue for me.

I just thought I'd throw that into the mix if anyone bought used, and maybe the vehicle had the ignition pin fix some time in the Jeeps history.

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'06 Liberty Limited CRD.
149K miles.
- Timing belt done.
- Weeks Kit Stage 1.
- Weeks Kit Stage 2.
- JBA 2.5 inch Silver kit and UCAs installed at 125K miles.
- Weeks supplied Samco Intercooler Hoses and clamps.

Waiting for time, limber fingers, and good weather to do my HDS Model 001 Thermostat unit swap.

Mine's an automatic and it has a steering lock that engages when the steering wheel is upside down. There's a spring that pushes the chunky pin up intothe locking slot... maybe it's gone, broken, or snarled up on reinstallation. Another possibility is the actuating cam that holds the locking pin down while the key's turned may have issues.