Airbag dash light on.

[GDII]

A while ago I removed the whole steering column from my mums 2000 AE111 corolla XL wagon face lift. The ignition lock was stuffed so Toyota told us to remove it and take it to get rebuilt. I had to unplug all the wires to get it out.

Now there is the yellow wires (airbag wire) and a few other plugs for the driver controls. But there is also TWO small plugs (from the car loom but only ONE from the steering column) with two wires each. They both have very similar colours, not 100% on what they are, Dad took the car out tonight when I was going to check it. I didn't pay attention to which plug was in when I took it out.

I have tried reseting the ECU by removing the battery for 12 hours.
Mum took it to Toyota today and they said they couldn't fix it unless they looked at the steering column. That will cost.
The only thing I haven't tried is swapping the small plugs over and reseting the ECU.

Has anyone else done this before? Got any advice? We will take it back to Toyota Thursday, but I want to try fix it myself before then.

[Zak]

Air bags is one thing I would really recommend you don't play with if you don't know 100% what your doing.

Also, you can't stuff up air bag wiring as they have very special plugs and they are all yellow, to undo you have to pull a tag out before you can remove them.

From the sounds of things, you've broken the clock/spiral wire.

If you do decide to f**k with it, at least disconnect the battery for 2 or more minutes.

[GDII]

The yellow wire did have a clip over the plug to stop it from coming out. Which you just push across and unplug it. Is that what you mean?

And yes I really should not have done it myself. But the car was immobile and didn't want to have to get it transported from where I live to just take it out.

[Lloyd]

Take it to a garage and get them to scan it and see what code is in and if it will clear. If they just clear the code and thats all it is then its going to cost you bugger all

[GDII]

I'll give that a shot. Wouldn't reseting the ECU do that?

[Zak]

The yellow wire did have a clip over the plug to stop it from coming out. Which you just push across and unplug it. Is that what you mean?

And yes I really should not have done it myself. But the car was immobile and didn't want to have to get it transported from where I live to just take it out.

Well yellow ones will only go into yellow ones, so you can't mix it up.

If you took the whole colum out you will have broken the spiral wire unless you reset it before putting it back in. The only way to know is to take it to a toyota dealership, or a garage that knows how to diagnose it, as it won't show up on a tester.

[GDII]

Don't know what the spiral wire is.

Definitely plugged the yellow back in to its correct socket.

Guess I'll just leave it and let Toyota sort it.

And next time do some research on airbags before I touch one. Or leave it to a pro. Thanks guys.

[Lloyd]

The spiral is a spiral of wire in under the airbag that has 4 wires in it, about 20mm thick with a plug on each size and about the diameter of a CD usually. If you unwind or let it uncoil when its out of the vehicle then chances are you'll break it when it goes back in. Any decent garage with diagnostic equipment should be able to check your fault codes. If you have broken this wire then there will most likely be a fault code for it.

[Zak]

The spiral is a spiral of wire in under the airbag that has 4 wires in it, about 20mm thick with a plug on each size and about the diameter of a CD usually. If you unwind or let it uncoil when its out of the vehicle then chances are you'll break it when it goes back in. Any decent garage with diagnostic equipment should be able to check your fault codes. If you have broken this wire then there will most likely be a fault code for it.

Nope, it will just show open circut on air bag, it's up to the techy to find the actuall fault still.

[GDII]

I don't remember seeing anything like that. Is it on the air bag itself or in the column?

[Zak]

Between the column and the airbag, smack bang in the middle of the steering wheel.

[GDII]

No. Never took the wheel off or airbag out. Just unbolted the steering column from the spline and height adjuster of the car and unplugged wires.

[gepsk8]

clock spring will be $&#$% if u spun colum more than 2.5 turn one way,
take to autosparky, with scantool they will change but atleast workshop isn't puting a mark up on it.
they need to reset it then find out if u $&#$% clock spring or not.
if ur lucy it will be ok

[matt dunn]

The steering shaft is timed to the steering rack basically.

If you unbolted the steering column from the spline turned the shaft one turn, and reassembled it, you would never know driving it.

The steering wheel will still point straight ahead and the wheel alignment will be fine,

but you've just stuffed the clock spring and cost yourself about $800 probably depending on the model.

We do Airbag stuff all the time at work.
It's a common thing to occour whenever someone in experineced removes a column.

[GDII]

Oh damn. Its most likely broken then. It sometimes locked up before full lock and had to force it further. Well theres my problem, now I've got to tell mum the bad news

Thanks for your help guys.

[GDII]

It was the spring wire. Got it replaced for $350 instead of $750. I'm sure I broke it when I was driving it after I put it back together.

Next time I won't touch it. Lesson learnt.