Airbag Clock Spring
Airbag Clock Spring
Just finished changing out my Airbag clock spring. I know it's not a very common part to have to fix, but if anyone winds up needing to change theirs out and would like some pictures to look at ahead of time just let me know and I'd gladly send some pictures your way along with any information I can.
'95 Mazda Mx-3 RS 1.6 DOHC-To get the cops after me
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
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mx3autozam
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2950
- Joined: September 24th, 2005, 9:09 pm
- Location: Kitchener
Re: Airbag Clock Spring
why don't you take pics anyways and post them up in this thread. You never know someone may need it and it will come up in a search.
93 Mazda MX3 KLZE Turbo
Re: Airbag Clock Spring
Alright, I did take pictures of the process... so in hopes that it will be useful to someone I will post a reply with pictures as soon as I can get them up on a photo hosting website 
'95 Mazda Mx-3 RS 1.6 DOHC-To get the cops after me
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
Re: Airbag Clock Spring
Alright so here it is.
First of all, this process deals with the electrical connections used to control your airbag. These things deploy at
200mph+... I'm sure you get my drift. UNHOOK YOUR BATTERY!! One of these going off in your lap/face/chest would not make for a good day, not to mention the gasses are enough to knock you unconscious. Just take the extra thirty seconds to loosen the 3/8 nut on your battery terminals and disconnect the battery. You can get away with just unhooking your positive feed, but you'd be better off being safe and removing the battery completely from the car.
Alright, with that being said here are the tools I needed. Philips Screw driver, 10mm socket, 13/16 socket, ratchet extension (6 inch seemed to work fine).
This is what the steering column should look like when you start and when you finish.
Note! In this step be careful while physically removing airbag, take it slow! There are three
connections just behind the airbag that need to be taken apart before the airbag assembly can be removed This is why I needed to replace this part to begin with. While disassembling the steering column becuase of a key broken off in my ignition, a friend of mine unbolted the air bag and then just pulled... hense the following damage to my clock spring:
To begin with, I would recommend removing your airbag and horn assembly from the steering column.
This is held on with four screws on the back of the steering wheel (10mm heads) They are set in from the back of the steering wheel and you will have to pop small covers off to reach them. This is not the very first step you need to take, however I found it much more comfortable working with my airbag safe and out of the way.
you will need to remove the shroud covering your steering column. this is held together with three philips head screws on the underneath of the steering column once these screws are removed the shroud is held together with small clips and should pop right apart. Along with this shroud is a small length of plastic which pops right out and is not held on by any screws or bolts. Once this shroud is removed the majority of your steering column will be exposed. What you will see will differ slightly from the picture below, once you remove this shroud you will have access and a view of the steering column, as well as access to the control unit for your wipers and blinkers.
Before you can remove any parts from the steering column you will next have to remove the steering wheel. I strongly suggest using white out and marking the alignment of your steering wheel. When I did this part swap I didn't and now my steering wheel is slightly off center. The steering wheel is held on with a 13/16 lock nut and you will need an extension along with a socket to remove it. Once the nut is removed the steering wheel can be removed. It may take a little persuasion to come off but just put a little elbow grease behind it, or wiggle it and it will come loose. after you have the steering wheel removed this is what you will see:
Next you will need to pull down the lower dash. In order to do this without breaking any dash clips you will need to undo a bolt holding on the hood release cable. Unfortunately I do not have pictures for this and the next step but when you look at the hood release cable it will be rather obvious what needs to be disconnected. Once you free up the hood release cable, you only have two screws holding on the lower dash. With the drivers side door open you will see a panel on the top left of the dash which the door closes against. You will need to pop this panel off, it is only held on with clips. Under this panel are two philips screws that need to be removed in order for the lower dash to be removed. Once this is done the lower dash should be free to be removed.
Next you will have to disconnect the old clock spring from it's wiring harness in the dash, mine is missing the ignition cable due to my custom ignition job I did after the above stated incident. Just for knowledge, the top white connector runs your cruise control controls, the red connector is the positive feed for your horn, and the blue connector holds both the + and - lines for your airbag. The detach the same way the connections came apart from the airbag.
The clock spring is held to (what I will call the control unit) with three philips screws. Once you remove the three screws, you will need to snip one zip-tie in order to free the wires. After this unhook the wires running under the dash and the clock spring should come right off. Your new clock spring should hook right up the same way the old one came off, as shown below. (I did this process by removing the control unit from the steering column and doing the repair indoors due to bitter cold weather here in Maine)
That's just about it. The only thing you should need to special care of when doing the reassembly is setting the clock spring. Turn the clock spring to the right (clockwise) until you feel the ribbon cable get tight. Then turn the clock spring counter clockwise 2 3/4 turns and line up the small arrows. Once this is done you should be set to put the steering wheel back on. It goes without saying that everything just goes back together the same way it came apart. All I have to say is be careful with the plastic parts, those clips break rather easily as I found out the hard way. Also, then you put the airbag assembly back in, I found that the only place to put the wiring harness was to tuck it up in the upper right hand corner of the steering wheel, there should be a small wire clip there to hold the harness.
Hope someone finds this useful If you read this and have any related questions feel free to send me a PM or just post a reply and I will answer it to the best of my knowledge
First of all, this process deals with the electrical connections used to control your airbag. These things deploy at
200mph+... I'm sure you get my drift. UNHOOK YOUR BATTERY!! One of these going off in your lap/face/chest would not make for a good day, not to mention the gasses are enough to knock you unconscious. Just take the extra thirty seconds to loosen the 3/8 nut on your battery terminals and disconnect the battery. You can get away with just unhooking your positive feed, but you'd be better off being safe and removing the battery completely from the car.
Alright, with that being said here are the tools I needed. Philips Screw driver, 10mm socket, 13/16 socket, ratchet extension (6 inch seemed to work fine).
This is what the steering column should look like when you start and when you finish.
Note! In this step be careful while physically removing airbag, take it slow! There are three
connections just behind the airbag that need to be taken apart before the airbag assembly can be removed This is why I needed to replace this part to begin with. While disassembling the steering column becuase of a key broken off in my ignition, a friend of mine unbolted the air bag and then just pulled... hense the following damage to my clock spring:
To begin with, I would recommend removing your airbag and horn assembly from the steering column.
This is held on with four screws on the back of the steering wheel (10mm heads) They are set in from the back of the steering wheel and you will have to pop small covers off to reach them. This is not the very first step you need to take, however I found it much more comfortable working with my airbag safe and out of the way.
you will need to remove the shroud covering your steering column. this is held together with three philips head screws on the underneath of the steering column once these screws are removed the shroud is held together with small clips and should pop right apart. Along with this shroud is a small length of plastic which pops right out and is not held on by any screws or bolts. Once this shroud is removed the majority of your steering column will be exposed. What you will see will differ slightly from the picture below, once you remove this shroud you will have access and a view of the steering column, as well as access to the control unit for your wipers and blinkers.
Before you can remove any parts from the steering column you will next have to remove the steering wheel. I strongly suggest using white out and marking the alignment of your steering wheel. When I did this part swap I didn't and now my steering wheel is slightly off center. The steering wheel is held on with a 13/16 lock nut and you will need an extension along with a socket to remove it. Once the nut is removed the steering wheel can be removed. It may take a little persuasion to come off but just put a little elbow grease behind it, or wiggle it and it will come loose. after you have the steering wheel removed this is what you will see:
Next you will need to pull down the lower dash. In order to do this without breaking any dash clips you will need to undo a bolt holding on the hood release cable. Unfortunately I do not have pictures for this and the next step but when you look at the hood release cable it will be rather obvious what needs to be disconnected. Once you free up the hood release cable, you only have two screws holding on the lower dash. With the drivers side door open you will see a panel on the top left of the dash which the door closes against. You will need to pop this panel off, it is only held on with clips. Under this panel are two philips screws that need to be removed in order for the lower dash to be removed. Once this is done the lower dash should be free to be removed.
Next you will have to disconnect the old clock spring from it's wiring harness in the dash, mine is missing the ignition cable due to my custom ignition job I did after the above stated incident. Just for knowledge, the top white connector runs your cruise control controls, the red connector is the positive feed for your horn, and the blue connector holds both the + and - lines for your airbag. The detach the same way the connections came apart from the airbag.
The clock spring is held to (what I will call the control unit) with three philips screws. Once you remove the three screws, you will need to snip one zip-tie in order to free the wires. After this unhook the wires running under the dash and the clock spring should come right off. Your new clock spring should hook right up the same way the old one came off, as shown below. (I did this process by removing the control unit from the steering column and doing the repair indoors due to bitter cold weather here in Maine)
That's just about it. The only thing you should need to special care of when doing the reassembly is setting the clock spring. Turn the clock spring to the right (clockwise) until you feel the ribbon cable get tight. Then turn the clock spring counter clockwise 2 3/4 turns and line up the small arrows. Once this is done you should be set to put the steering wheel back on. It goes without saying that everything just goes back together the same way it came apart. All I have to say is be careful with the plastic parts, those clips break rather easily as I found out the hard way. Also, then you put the airbag assembly back in, I found that the only place to put the wiring harness was to tuck it up in the upper right hand corner of the steering wheel, there should be a small wire clip there to hold the harness.
Hope someone finds this useful
If you read this and have any related questions feel free to send me a PM or just post a reply and I will answer it to the best of my knowledge'95 Mazda Mx-3 RS 1.6 DOHC-To get the cops after me
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
'01 Buick Regal LS 3.8 V6 series 2- My inconspicuous getaway car
-
Limegreen mx-3
- Regular Member
- Posts: 1778
- Joined: October 29th, 2002, 2:01 am
- Location: San Antonio TX
- Contact:
Re: Airbag Clock Spring
damn glad i have a 92 and 93 model mx-3...
they are a bit tricky to do. props in replacing.
this should be in the 6cly, 4cly faq section for future reference
what do u say custommx-3
they are a bit tricky to do. props in replacing.
this should be in the 6cly, 4cly faq section for future reference
what do u say custommx-3
(12.4@118@18psi) 92 MX-3, KIA (BP-DE)Swap, Electromotive TEC II Standalone, 8,200 Rev Limit, Custom Intake/Exhaust Manifold, 1,000cc PTE Injectors, Custom Fuel Rail, Aeromotive FPR, 80MM Holley TB, MSD 8.5MM Wires, NGK V-Power #8, SC6262 Turbo, 3 in. DownPipe, Tial WG/BOV, 600HP PTE FMIC, 2.5IN Intercooler Piping, EQUUS/Autometer KIA G-Series Tran, Extreme ACT Clutch, Built BP in starting process.
-Jim