My left shoulder started clicking and then moved on to crunching. Pain increased with the noise. I had a cortisone shot years ago and it only recently started making noise again.
As for your "necking" knob, my English teacher had a story about one he had. Seems he was stopped awaiting his time to turn and had the wheel cranked. A drunk plowed into him and as his car was forced backwards, the wheels straightened and the force of the impact placed his head into the steering wheel as it bobbed up and down from the punches of the knob. Needless to say, his face was a bloody mess (he had scars years later) and to top it off, the horn ring (remember those?) broke and punctured his lung.