Hi all,

The air bag light has come on in my felicia. I have done a diagnostic check on vag com and it says "airbag resistance to high".

I had to remove the steering wheel about a week before the light came on so I'm wondering if that is anything to do with it?

Any help much appreciated the red light is driving me mad.

Thanks

Rob.

Yup... thats your problem.

When you remove the wheel if you switched the ignition on it will have caused this as the airbag controller will not have been able to pass any current to the airbag to check it so it's thrown a wobbler.

Just clear the code and it should clear it if you connected everything back up properly.

Phil

I have cleared the problem and the fault comes back after i drive the car.

Its driving me mad. Do you think cleaning the conectors are worth a try?

Cheers

Rob.

Try actively pushing the plug ends together, and check if there's a spot of muck on one of the slip rings if accessible.

I've always disconected the battery when iv had to remove the airbag. Would i be ok to remove the airbag with the battery connected. so I can do what you sugested?

If you had the battery disconnected last week, I'm certain the problem is the connector or slip rings (or expensive :( ).

what are slip rings?

You know how the wheel centre and airbag spin round when you steer yes? Slip rings are circular contacts that brushes or fixed contacts run on, to supply power to the airbag module without a cable getting wound one way then the other round the steering column.

Ahh. would this also power the horn. its a copper ring with a copper pip.

Because the contact had worn and the horn only works when the wheel is straight I have not got round th sorting that out.

Same method for sure if it's a centre press horn, so you might well have an issue there.

The airbag is run through a seperate cable to the horn. It is a really long ribbon cable that is wound loosely round inside a little plastic hub that is attached to the wheel.

When you take the steering wheel off there is a little clip cable underneath that goes to the wheel... it is in there that the cable is wound round... I know about this as it came apart on me and took me ages to wind it back into the disc.

Hope that makes sense!

no its not a centre press horn its the its got 2 buttons either side of the airbag.

Thanks for all your help by the way

Ok thanks iv got somewhere to start looking tomorrow.

Thanks for all your help i will probably be back tomorrow after more help with it

I will let you know.

The airbag is run through a seperate cable to the horn. It is a really long ribbon cable that is wound loosely round inside a little plastic hub that is attached to the wheel.

When you take the steering wheel off there is a little clip cable underneath that goes to the wheel... it is in there that the cable is wound round... I know about this as it came apart on me and took me ages to wind it back into the disc.

Hope that makes sense!

I've heard it described as a clock spring (because that's what it looks like) that winds and unwinds as the wheel turns. Is that correct?

I've heard it described as a clock spring (because that's what it looks like) that winds and unwinds as the wheel turns. Is that correct?

They don't all use the method Phil describes, but if they do they often describe the wound wire as the clock spring because it looks roughly like one.

Yeah it has deffinently got a clock spring on it its built in to the steering wheel because I had one fall apart on a scrapyard car the once when i took the steering wheel off..

On my Fiat you remove the steering wheel then remove the clokspring seperatly.

But it has also got a slip ring that powers the horn because the pip that makes contact with the ring is worn got to sort that aswell.

I'll have a play with it tomorow and see how I get on.

Try testing the battery voltage with the engine running should be about 13.4 Volts. If higher then the voltage regulator maybe the suspect.