michael

iTrader: (1)

Have an airbag light on. Ideas? Do inspection places check this for Safety Inspection?

I've seen posts of people just pulling the fuse and bulb and leaving it be. I would prefer to fix it properly if possible.

Wife'sCar

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Yes they are "supposed" to check for them. If they do check and you have pulled the bulb they will still fail because the light us supposed to blink a set amount of times when the car is started.

The most common fail point is the clockspring in the column going bad. Or a sensor is corroded. Is it always on solid or does it kind of come and go as you drive?

On a theoretical thought I have had, if you were handy with circuitry you could wire up a setup to make the light blink however many times on startup then cut off. But if you were that good and we're going to do that much work might as well fix whatever the problem is.....

michael

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Haven't driven that much just bought it Fri and been working on other items. I believe it's on all the time though. How does one inspect the "clockspring" without setting the bag off in their face? LOL

Wife'sCar

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Well the procedure I use when messing with airbags is to take battery completely out of the car and let the car sit for at least 30 minutes to drain residual juice that may trip the bag, then unscrew the bag from the wheel, you can test it without taking the wheel off by checking continuity from the plug under the dash to the plug that goes into the bag. The wires from being turned so much over the years can break inside the clockspring. Replacing it gets trickey, requires removing wheel and most of the guts of the column.

michael

iTrader: (1)

Any ideas on where exactly the plug under the dash is located? To access the plug for the bag I will have to remove the bag from the steering wheel correct?
2 bolts or something on the back side of the steering wheel? There isn't alot of information about it around or I'm just not searching right.

Been so damn long since I've messed with a volt meter too. LOL My car has been parked since about late 2008 since the tree rats chewed my engine harness up and it wouldn't pass inspection at the time because it was running way rich. (Heads needed to be redone mainly). Don't generally have to pull a voltage meter out for a 2002 caravan. So I've become rather rusty with a meter.

I have the service manual but pff if I can understand the flow charts. LOL Never been good at those. Not only that but they never lead to what your supposed to actually test. You have to already know what your looking at to even begin following one.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Any plugs, wires that have anything to do with bag system will be yellow.

Just follow the column.

michael

iTrader: (1)

Isn't this the coil that could be broken?



Seems easy enough to replace. Just having to remove the 4 bolts on the back of the wheel then the nut in the center and using a puller to remove the wheel. Then a little clip and it slides off. From what I'm reading here anyway. Then again the wire has to come out of the column somehow so all the internals probably have to come out to do so. :-(

Could you toss a dog a bone and give me a quick refresher on using a digital multimeter for continuity checking. Maybe the inspection place won't check the light. They hardly check anything on the caravan when we take it each year. I would still like to fix it properly though even if they don't look for the light.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Set it to ohms, any setting is fine but you should get no resistance from one end of the wire to the other, and in order for the plug to come through the column from the other end you have to just about gut the entire column.

michael

iTrader: (1)

No ohms would be the display staying 0.0 or 0.00 etc correct and ain't that a bitch lol I assume the wire can't be spliced into so a new spool wire could be fed down the column then the connector just be put on.

That picture above is the part in question though correct?

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Yeah you could cut it and thread it through, but solder the wires back together then clamp a bell crimp on it with heat shrink as well to maintain a good connection. The meter should drop to zero from one end of the wire to the other, if you get any number other than zero that is a measure of resistance and means a problem.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Actually you might could pop the wires out of the plug housing and thread them through then pop them back in the housing piece.

michael

iTrader: (1)

Can that part still be purchased from gm or are we stuck with used from salvage yards etc. Not knowing if the spring is still intact?

I'll try to get to testing it out tomorrow not sure if I will have time or not.

I could probably use pin tools from a computer power supply to remove the pins. Computers is what I've dabbled in the last several years so I have a tool set laying around for doing custom sleeving on any wiring in a computer.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

I'd imagine it could be bought new from auto stores, it's a common failure point in almost all vehicles of age with air bags.

michael

iTrader: (1)

Gotcha I'll check the Zone and Oreilly out just so I know where I need to go if in fact it is bad. Didn't think they would carry an item like that. for your help so far.

Wife'sCar

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No problem, if I remember correctly it's kinda pricey, but that's something you could order online as well, don't limit yourself to parts store price gouging.

michael

iTrader: (1)

Thing is I couldn't find the damn thing anywhere. LOL By searching for the vehicle anyway. Now the part number off the coil may be different.

90 GTA Black

I think reading ohms could be misleading because every wire has some degree of resistance. I would set the multimeter to the continuity symbol and test it that way.

Wife'sCar

iTrader: (1)

Dang, having trouble finding one myself. Here's a good test procedure
m.youtube.com/watch?v=-UgL22uM8Tk

michael

iTrader: (1)

Did you ever find a place? I haven't gotten around to testing mine out yet. Keeps raining here. :-(