Tilt Steering Fixes....

[mts]

From a post at Mazda Forum;

 

Remove the steering column 2 piece cover and tracked down the tilt motor. On the 98 it is located under the under dash panel to the left side of the steering column. The motor looks very similar to a power window motor. It is held to the column by 4 bolts and has one connector. After removing it and opening it up on my bench, I found a nasty, dirty, burnt mess. I sprayed the contacts and the internal components clean and a very thin sanding of the contacts on the internal rotor. (VERY THIN SANDING!!) These contacts are very thin but were burnt from the starter contacts over time. After lubing the ends and putting it back together in the car, the entire system started to work.

 

From the neitherworld;

(1998 L). The motor on mine is near the base of the column. You can see it by looking lengthwise down the column on the bottom side. It is held in place by 4 philips-head screws, which are very difficult to get to, unless you do what I did. I literally punched 4 holes through the bottom of the knee bolster to get at the screws. The two nearest the steering wheel can be punched with your screw driver, but the two lower ones required a 1/4" drill. I hated to de-face my car, but you really can't tell unless you're looking for them. Anyway, I then unplugged the motor and removed the screws, using a magnetic probe to catch them so as not to lose them. The motor then drops right out onto the floor. There are 3 screws that hold the motor itself to the gear drive. I removed them, pulled the motor off, and VOILA - the brushes were totally crudded-up with a bunch of black crap. I then cleaned everything up with a couple of rags and some electronic cleaner. I would suggest also pulling the armature out of the case and cleaning it thouroughly; there will be some resistance due to it the fact that it uses a permanent magnet motor. I then re-greased the bushings and put it all back together. Plugged it in before reassembling it to the column, hit the switch and it worked like a charm! I then re-greased the worm gear that mates to the column and installed the screws just so they're snug. Then I bumped the tilt switch to seat the gears properly, tightened the screws the rest of the way and it has worked perfectly ever since

 

A little more technical;

 

Tilt motors do seem to be somewhat common but so is the tilt relay. Only fuse that might affect system would probably be the 30 Amp "DOOR LOCK" fuse in the underdash box but would not have power locks only. Pic of Tilt relay location below. Straight up above the brake pedal. Should have 6 wires to it.

 

Two are White w/ Green stripe and are 12 volt input from the door lock fuse.

 

Red and Blue wires go to the tilt motor. With connector unplugged from relay, 12 volts to Red and grounding the Blue will tilt up. Reverse power and ground to these two wires and will tilt down.

 

Black is ground wire. Ground point is right side of passenger footwell just in front of the door opening.

 

The White wire and Red w/ White wire connect to the CPU and are the command signals for tilt up and down. Using a jumper wire to backprobe the connector while still connected to the relay and Grounding the White wire is tilt up command, Grounding the Red w/ White stripe is command tilt down.

 

Hope that helps to isolate down to at least ruling out the relay, motor, and power source.