Its been a couple weeks, I’ve been driving it around with a temporary sticker on the plate. It needs a few things for the safety, no big deal. Ive been picking at some of these “things”.
Overall impression: I like it! Rides good, the V8 has balls, fun to drive, makes a good family wheeler and a mid week mall crawler.
Anyway, like I said, I’ve been picking away…
Spiral Cable: The OEM spiral cable was kaput. The horn didn’t work, cruise control didn’t work, volume control worked, the airbag didn’t. “The Spiral Cable / Clock Spring”…. Interesting device, expensive if you buy OEM ($412 for the part) or cheaper if you buy aftermarket ($75). I chose the cheaper one, for obvious reasons. Looking at the OEM, failed spiral Cable, I noticed the clocked position, it was in, was wrong. There is a curtain position it must be in or it will fail.
What is a clock spring or spiral cable?
“In vehicle steering systems a clock spring or clockspring is a spiral-wound special rotary electrical connector which allows a vehicle’s steering wheel to turn while still making an electrical connection between the steering wheel airbag and/or the vehicle’s horn and other devices and the vehicle’s electrical systems”.
So, I replaced mine. It didn’t take long, fairly easy.
Remove Airbag…
Pull steering wheel off …
Remove plastic Tupperware that covers the steering column exposing the Spiral Cable: round thing with the yellow sticker and wires.
Remove the Spiral Cable assembly…
New and old Spiral Cables: Top=old OEM, Bottom=new aftermarket…
New one installed…
After the install, everything worked. Cruise control, horn, airbag, stereo controls.
The airbag light remained “ON”. I tried clearing the error code with my OBDII (with ABS and Airbag read and erase) gadget. I was able to erase the code but it kept popping up again. I took it to Toyota to recalibrate the airbag module. In the end, I can scratch this off my “Safety” list.
On to the next thing…
