Steering column shedding bits

[April Thompson]

I hope nothing crucial broke, but last night I'd noticed my tilt was hyper-extended, almost vertical. The ratcheting mechanism works okay, and there's no slippage or loose joints. This morning, as I parked my car, a little yellowish piece of plastic fell out; it looked as if the end was ground away, and is for the most part long & rectangular except the intact end is at a slight angle. Would this be some sort of limiter? It's entirely possible, though, the column is on the way out; with that in mind, will a column from an 06-08-which has different cruise control buttons than 04-05-be compatible with 04-05 if I replace the whole shebang? No longer having a right hand, it's more difficult to use my CC buttons on my 04, so this breakdown is the perfect excuse to attempt an upgrade... as long as the connectors to the dash plug or the BCM plug were repinned in the mid-generation thus making later incompatible with earlier! That, and of course beggars =/= choosers at the boneyard!

 

[WarStryker13]

It should be the same connectors, If it isn't I can try to find the wiring diagrams I have around here somewhere and figure out the pinout for you.
I'll take a look tonight and see. Does the donor car have the same options, ie: cruise, fog, radio controls, etc?

 

[April Thompson]

Any donor car I get to will have those; I can at least control that!​

 

[April Thompson]

Update: I found a replacement tilt wheel governor, or whatever you want to call that plastic bit that fits into the tilt joint on the right side, just behind the wiper switch! Took longer to gain access to the repair area than it did to fix it; funny old world, innit?