Steering wheel annoying 'haptic-like' click feeling

I am only recently noticing a very slight but annoying click feel through steering wheel. I am fairly sure it is in the steering wheel itself. It can be noticed when wheel starts from dead center and car is going straight. Turning the wheel between 5 and 10 degrees either left or right of center results in a slight momentary click. I can best describe the feeling as like the haptic feedback response you get from your smartphone when pressing on an icon that lets you know you're phone got your input. Of course it is a bit more pronounced than this but subtle. The click does not occur again when wheel transits past this point until it returns back to center and subsequently goes a few degrees from center (right or left).

I believe it is steering wheel or column because when I adjust the steering wheel as high as it can be set, the clicking doesn't happen. I do notice when adjusting the position of the column, it may not be gliding as it did when I remember adjusting last time - a bit of ratcheting as it move up and down until it is locked with the release lever.

I do not have any issues as of yet with the controls mounted on steering wheel but I do here some very fine spring noise which I believe would be normal. Spring noise can't be noticed unless ear is to the wheel. I prefer the column in the middle of the range of adjustments. Could probably get used to this clicking or leave column at top of range but would just prefer it to be like it was before this started happening.

As always - Thank you in advance for any ideas as what might be happening and how to fix it.

 

Thank you for that suggestion. I'll look into getting at that area to get some lubricant into that area if it is needing it. Sounds like it might be an easy resolution if it's not too crazy disassembling the skins to get to it.

We had two 2008 prii until last week. Unfortunately my wife's got totaled two weeks ago when it was rear ended. Thankfully the car held up amazingly well but still... it doesn't take much to total out a 12 year old car with 206k miles on it. They valued it at $3900 and took out my deductible of $500 leaving me with a $3400 settlement. When they were estimating the damage they stopped the exercise when they reached $5000 of cost to repair. The car wasn't throwing any codes and the cabin integrity and front of car and obviously the hybrid system were fine. I know I could have got another 100K out of it and now I'm looking at car payments once again to replace it.