Airbag light won't turn off

[mnbvczxc]

I had been driving around wityh this problem for about a year now and decided to fix it with the help of your handy forum here. So I have a 2007 Yaris but could not find the service manual or even where to short the pins for a code read but the problem sounded just like the typical spiral cable thing. Here are some pictures to go along with the fix.



As you can see the Airbag light is on as well as the engine light, which I had just acquired in the last few days, probably gas cap or something?



actually I was hoping somebody could tell me where to look in this picture for the 2 points for reading the codes...


The culprit is the white ribbon cable seen here, as expected.



A closer look at the ribbon cable (spiral cable) reveals a worn strand in the cable which has created an open circuit.



I figured that I had nothing to lose to just solder it up along with a strand of thin copper wire embeded in the solder job. The remaining wire was cut away after the pic was taken.



So the car went back together a lot easier than it came apart. Lights out!

[wilbrod]

Nice picture and great fix!

I saw your question about how to short the pins. You are looking in the good area but not in the good spot. You have to look from underneath by where the pedals are to access the ODB-2 port. You don't need to remove the sunglasses drawers thing. The red square in picture is the port but you have to look at the other side of it, from below. See picture.

I must say thanks to OP for posting about the error 51. I shorted the pins, ordered a knock off clock spring off ebay and now the airbag light is off.

[CTScott]

^Nice. Did you put a piece of tape over that solder wad to keep it from rubbing through as the ribbon slides against itself?

[mnbvczxc]

I should first say thanks for all of your postings Scott, they really made it obvious what I was after. I didn't put any tape there and quite honestly I'm not expecting another 200,000 from the fix but we'll see what happens. I did though put a layer of dielectric grease on the ribbon cable just because I did see a tiny bit of it on the cable when I had a closer look at it. It did seem kinda odd that the cable deteriorated in the middle of a full length with no other real wear spots so I kinda suspect that maybe a grain of sand or salt or something fairly rough must have got in there and proceeded to grind a hole in the cabling as I turned my steering wheel day after day. The case that protects this cable has a lose enough fit to allow such a thing to happen and it does kinda explain the odd location for the break, so no more eating McDonalds fries and driving :-(. Anyhow, again I must thank you for spending your time to write out these threads for us noobs to help save some cash and get to know our ride that much better.

Ron

[swidd]

Just want to say thanks to the post, and thanks to CTScott (AGAIN) for this information.

My airbag light went on intermittently and then constantly over the past month.

I used the paperclip method to get codes: 32, 43 and 51.

Noticed that sometimes the light would be off when I started, then turn on as soon as I rotated the steering wheel, so suspected steering wheel. CTScott confirmed suspicion :-)

Bought one off eBay for $45 shipped.

Installed just now; only issue I encountered was that after removing the 19mm bolt, the steering wheel was very stiff to get off.

Checking the old clockspring with a multi meter, it seems that one of the yellow wires must be connected to the other yellow wire. One yellow wire has no connection to any pins, but the other yellow wire has connection to two pins.

Anyway, thanks to this thread, fixed the airbag light for $45! Dealership quoted me $900 over the phone: $90 to read codes, $760 to fix it if it was the clock spring + tax.

[misolith]

Clearing DTC after apparently resolving problem?
I have a 2007 Yaris with a DTC 51 that according to other posts on this list indicate a problem in the Clock Spring.

I just replaced the clock spring with a new one and I found that there seems to have been a short in the spring on the cables with the black connector terminal on the end of the clock spring.

I've replaced everything and there's now no continuity on the cables in the the orange or the black terminals of the new clock spring.

I turned on the car and it still shows a DTC 51. I disconnected the battery and the DTC is still 51.

Have you any other advice as to how this error might be cleared?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by misolith

Clearing DTC after apparently resolving problem?
I have a 2007 Yaris with a DTC 51 that according to other posts on this list indicate a problem in the Clock Spring.

I just replaced the clock spring with a new one and I found that there seems to have been a short in the spring on the cables with the black connector terminal on the end of the clock spring.

I've replaced everything and there's now no continuity on the cables in the the orange or the black terminals of the new clock spring.

I turned on the car and it still shows a DTC 51. I disconnected the battery and the DTC is still 51.

Have you any other advice as to how this error might be cleared?

I replied to your other post. There is no need to cross post in multiple threads.

[Camberix]

Just wanted to check in and report a successful clock spring replacement and SRS light fix. Thanks to Scott for your posts.

I jumpered the ODB2 port and got the usual code. I ordered a $50 aftermarket replacement clock spring off eBay, and it saved a bundle over Toyota OEM replacement. The nice thing about this part is that there is a window on the housing that show an orange tab when the mechanism is correctly centered. A removable plastic tab kept the unit centered during shipping.

The only thing I ran into was my Torx socket not fitting the factory hole on the steering wheel trim piece. Many normal 3/8" drive Torx T30 sockets are a little too wide to fit. I (carefully) took a Dremel sanding drum to the holes, and fixed that.

It's a shame that an airbag component is not an automatic lifetime warranty part. Some manufacturers warranty seatbelts for the life of the car. I hate to think what people have paid to fix this.

[gopacks12]

The SRS light comes on and stays on after I turn the wheel a few times as im driving. Once I park and later come back to the car the light is off and then it happens all over again after a few turns later.

I followed the instructions on this thread and used a paper clip to jump it and got 35, 51, 37.

I've attached a picture of the what the service manual says about these codes.
The only thing they all have in common is the Center Airbag Sensor Assembly.
Whats that?

I'm like a total rookie to this sorta stuff so if anyone out there with some knowledge or experience can help me i'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by gopacks12

The SRS light comes on and stays on after I turn the wheel a few times as im driving. Once I park and later come back to the car the light is off and then it happens all over again after a few turns later.

I followed the instructions on this thread and used a paper clip to jump it and got 35, 51, 37.

I've attached a picture of the what the service manual says about these codes.
The only thing they all have in common is the Center Airbag Sensor Assembly.
Whats that?

I'm like a total rookie to this sorta stuff so if anyone out there with some knowledge or experience can help me i'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Was your car in an accident?

35 is the seat position sensor, which is a device mounted to the bottom of the driver's side seat rail to detect if the driver is close to or far from the steering wheel.

37 is the driver's side buckle switch, which is a hall effect sensor mounted within the seat belt latch to detect if the buckle is clicked or not.

Those two giving errors would make me first check to see if the connectors are plugged in under the driver's seat.

51 is a short in the steering wheel airbag. That one is most likely due to a bad spiral cable (AKA clockspring), which is the device under the steering wheel that allows the steering wheel to rotate while maintaining the connection to the airbag and horn.

[gopacks12]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Was your car in an accident?

35 is the seat position sensor, which is a device mounted to the bottom of the driver's side seat rail to detect if the driver is close to or far from the steering wheel.

37 is the driver's side buckle switch, which is a hall effect sensor mounted within the seat belt latch to detect if the buckle is clicked or not.

Those two giving errors would make me first check to see if the connectors are plugged in under the driver's seat.

51 is a short in the steering wheel airbag. That one is most likely due to a bad spiral cable (AKA clockspring), which is the device under the steering wheel that allows the steering wheel to rotate while maintaining the connection to the airbag and horn.

Yeah my front bumber was shattered back in december (air bags didnt go off) and about a month ago i was rear ended (airbags didnt deploy either). Cracked my bumber.

When the SRS first started coming on I was looking threw the threads on here and one did say check the connections under the driver seat so i gave it a shot. I unplugged the connectors while the car was still running (i know stupid right) then re plugged it in again. Maybe thats why its showing me 35, 37.

I probably have to do that jumper trick to get rid of codes 35, 37.
Im pretty sure the SRS light is coming on mainly because of the clockspring since it only happens after a few turns of the steering wheel.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by gopacks12

Yeah my front bumber was shattered back in december (air bags didnt go off) and about a month ago i was rear ended (airbags didnt deploy either). Cracked my bumber.

When the SRS first started coming on I was looking threw the threads on here and one did say check the connections under the driver seat so i gave it a shot. I unplugged the connectors while the car was still running (i know stupid right) then re plugged it in again. Maybe thats why its showing me 35, 37.

I probably have to do that jumper trick to get rid of codes 35, 37.
Im pretty sure the SRS light is coming on mainly because of the clockspring since it only happens after a few turns of the steering wheel.

Ah, that makes sense. And, I do believe that the 35 and 37 are codes which will not automatically clear, so you will have to do the jumper trick to clear them.

Aftermarket clocksprings have popped up on ebay for around $50. I am not sure of the quality, but they are a whole lot cheaper than OEM ones.

[RagnaCaT]

Scott i got a question is it possible by changing the squib to a single cable one can use a single wire Airbag instead of a Dual cable Airbag, I wanted to change my steering wheel to one with controls but the squib and airbag are are single cabled.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by RagnaCaT

Scott i got a question is it possible by changing the squib to a single cable one can use a single wire Airbag instead of a Dual cable Airbag, I wanted to change my steering wheel to one with controls but the squib and airbag are are single cabled.

The two squib system is used in conjunction with the sensor on the seat rail, which detects the proximity of the driver to the steering wheel and either fires one or box of the squibs. To use a single squib airbag (and free up two wires) you would have to bypass the second squib using a 3 ohm resistor at the steering column connector.

[baseballfan416]

Rather than starting a new thread I figured I'd just ask in here...


Did the mcgiver paper clip trick and got a code 51... So for all intensive purposes this means swap out the clockspring?

Unlike other posts which received multiple codes, I only got the 51, which is my reason for clarification. Appreciate the insight(s).

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by baseballfan416

Rather than starting a new thread I figured I'd just ask in here...


Did the mcgiver paper clip trick and got a code 51... So for all intensive purposes this means swap out the clockspring?

Unlike other posts which received multiple codes, I only got the 51, which is my reason for clarification. Appreciate the insight(s).

51 Alone would almost definitely be the clockspring. In most of the other cases the car was initially involved in a collision, so that is why most have more than one code to clear.

[baseballfan416]

replaced the clockspring without any issues... or so I thought...

Can't seem to clear the srs code... and now I think it's blinking a new code? 53? Any ideas?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by baseballfan416

replaced the clockspring without any issues... or so I thought...

Can't seem to clear the srs code... and now I think it's blinking a new code? 53? Any ideas?

You went from 51, which was a problem with the primary squib circuit on the steering wheel airbag to 53, which is a problem with the secondary squib circuit on there. Where did you get your replacement from?