Airbag Clock Spring (Spiral Cable) Replacement

[mitch_893]

....

[aussiefergo]

Just replaced my clock spring today. Took less than an hour.

Thanks to the concise directions on page 1. Hardest thing was getting the steering wheel off.

Cheers

[TimmyD]

The SRS light on my 06 Lux has just started coming up - though only intermittently.
I just recently had the aircon evaporator replaced (previous owner had been driving on dusty roads with vents open, and the evaporator basically became a solid brick...). But to get this job done, they had to pull the whole dash out.
I'm just wondering if maybe they've knocked something loose back there :\

[gnmad580]

Just had the SRS light come on my 05 lux with 185,000 on speedo. I am on my 3rd clock spring.
Looked at the fault code with the Tecstream monitor and showed error code B1800, short to squib.
This is the wire to the airbag. Disconnected the plug at the back of the squib, and after resetting without the airbag, now show an open circuit code! Indicated a squib short.
On close inspection, noticed that the 2 pins on the squib have an automatin shorting strap under them, I assume that this is to prevent accidental operation.
I re inserted the plug and pushed in very tight. Now no problems.
Perhaps there is a problem with the thickness of the plug, preventing the short circuit from opening when the plug is in place.
I have checked my old clock spring and could not fault it for shorts or open circuits.
I am not gain
Me to play around with the squib end however if it happens again soon I will be placing a layer of tape on the plug to increase the thickness and ensure that the short is removed when the plug is in.
Not suggesting that this is the answer to srs lights however it has puzzled me why the clock springs fail.
Obviously when you replace the spring there may be more "meat" on the plug and "fixes" the problem.
At this stage, I am happy I got the ObdII scanner for the injectors as I would not have been able to differentiate between an open circuit or short circuit on the squib.

I hope that mine now works, and if I have further trouble soon I will report on the insulation tape solution.

Ps, my first post after looking at the forum for many years.

Cheers

[taresk]

Interesting that this thread has risen to the top again, was just about to go looking for it. My airbag light started coming on over the weekend.

[boxhead55]

The squib fails due to dust gaining entry to the assembly and the ribbon friction over time rubs away at the copper conductor within itself. Slowly but surely it rubs through the conductor on the ribbon and the light comes
On.

On another note
The connector pins for the air bag are gold coated well the toyota one is, that is why they cost so much. This is because they are a critical sensor and have to work without fail.

[gnmad580]

I don't disagree in principle however by definition the squib is the airbag detonator, the problem you describe is with the clock spring itself. The copper strips are similar to a domestic printer cable to the print head, and these get a lot more action during the printer life than the hilux spring. Certainly dust can be a contributing factor.
With mine, I had a "short to squib" fault. This was not an open circuit. The fault cleared by reseating the plug at the back of the detonator.
I only removed the airbag itself with the 2 torque screw after disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes and reseating the plug.
If in doubt as to why the light is on, have it checked with a scanner.
I agree that the airbag circuit is critical.

Cheers.