My 97 6speed had a steering column lock recall. Itook it to local dealer & the said they woul d repair n/c. About 3 wks . later on my way on vacation the thing locked up with the message remove key wait 10 sec.. well i had to have the car towed to twice once to the tow yard as the dealership was closed & then to the dealer. My guess is they did not do the recall repair the first time. now i get the message "remove key wait 10 sec. " The car will NOT START UNLESS THE KEY IS REMOVED & WAIT 10 SEC" I've read abour a by pass relay in the forum Should this have been done when the steering lock pin was disabled by the dealer. My c5 is at the dealer now for them to ck it out Any inpit on this issue PLEASE

 

This does not sound like the same problem as the recall (there, the steering locks up in the middle of a turn, while the car is moving), although they may have may have compounded the problem when they did the repair.

You can get the 10 second wait thing for a number of reasons, antyhing from a bad key (clean the small contacts on either side for any grease or goo that has accumlated) to a bad ignition switch.

 

I had the dealer recall done over a year ago and two weeks after that, my column locked solid. No amount of jiggling the key, torquing the wheel, or popping fuses would get the relay to budge. After the dealership replaced the relay, I promptly installed the column lock bypass and have never had a problem, since.

I've read recently that the dealerships are now completely removing the lock and installing a block-off plate. They were doing this for years if the C5 had an auto tranny (A4), but they are supposedly doing this to manual tranny C5s as well. Make sure your dealership doesn't just reprogram - that does squat when it comes to preventing a lockup when you shut down. Either they remove the lock or you need the bypass ($50).

Good luck.