Clockspring observations - comments

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tireman

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Recently the steering wheel radio buttons started acting nuts and the 3-2 air bag light went on. So obviously it was the clockspring. Got a new one installed it and viola! problem fixed. Now why did the old one stop working. Opened it up, the black box on the end is nothing more than a wire enclosure, you really don't need it, maybe it keeps the wires from making noise over bumps. The circular section is just a ribbon cable that spins as you turn the wheel in a fancy plastic enclosure. So all you really have is a fancy extension cord from airbag and switches down the steering shaft to the distribution point. Nothing but wires, no electronic parts to fail. So I pulled the ribbon cable out and checked it, nothing, no breaks, rips, no nothing. the way its installed it should never fail, as the wires never kink. I checked all the wires with an ohm meter for breaks, nothing, all show infinity, except two that go to the steering wheel radio switch which showed very minor resistance. So what gives here, has anyone found the culprit? Any comments?
 
tireman said:
I checked all the wires with an ohm meter for breaks, nothing, all show infinity,
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this would show that all of the wires are broke somewhere, if it was in working order, all of the wires should show a very LOW amount of resistance so that electricity can flow through. with a reading of infinity or open circuit, there is no part for the electrons to flow.


i have seen clocksprings break in plenty of other cars, just doesn't seem as common as it is in the LS.
 
opps my bad

i made a mistake in my wording, the wires all showed continuity only two showed any resistance. so all wires are good. I will keep searching for the answer, LS's have too many clocksprings failing.
 
The resistance may be issue. You would have to know the resistance value of the new wires for a comparison to condemn or pass the old ones.
 
Interesting enough

Yes, It was interesting to find (any) resistance in the wires at all. There should be none, as there is nothing inline that would provide any resistance at all. Just ribbon wire and wire, nothing else. I wonder is the ribbon wire separates internally? I held the ribbon up to a strong light with 10X magnification to check for clean breaks and saw nothing at all.
 
I don't know if it helps, but my clockspring is on the way out (airbag light 3/2 code) and one thing I've noticed is that the steering wheel controls for the cruise control and stereo are behaving strangely.

On the cruise control, sometimes the increase button will do nothing, other times it works fine, and sometimes the decrease speed button will actually increase the speed.

The same for the stereo controls. They work perfectly sometimes, sometime the decrease volume button will increase the volume, and sometimes pressing any button will start the stereo skipping ahead tracks on the CD over and over and over again like the button is stuck down (even thought it is no longer being pressed).

And randomly the CD just skips a track (either forward or backwards) just while I'm driving.

So it seems the clockspring isn't either just working or not, they can do spontaneously weird things and its all possible all the trouble shooting you're doing could be while its in a working state.


All that being said, it reminds me I have to fix mine. Where is the cheapest place to get them these days?


Kevin
 
then i would think that (as mentioned above) that if there was continuity on most of the wires, that the wires with resistance would be a problem.

for the radio wires, all of the buttons are connected to the same wire with each button having a different resistance, if the wire was adding resistance, this would change what the resistance the radio would "see" from each button press, and could push one or more of the buttons out of the tolerance each is allowed (or could even be high enough to match one of the buttons by itself)

tireman said:
LS's have too many clocksprings failing.
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every car has its problems, one of this cars problems is clocksprings, i wouldn't worry about it too much. if it fails, replace it and not worry about it again, its not like the coil issue, where the car may and probably will have to have it replaced over and over.
 
clockspring comments

"if it fails, replace it and not worry about it again"

Seems important, like replacing a seatbelt or some other type of safety device. Does that mean there was a fault in the original design or are oem/junkyard parts OK
 
embe said:
"if it fails, replace it and not worry about it again"

Seems important, like replacing a seatbelt or some other type of safety device. Does that mean there was a fault in the original design or are oem/junkyard parts OK
Click to expand...

If it's cheap enuff for you to take a chance on and go the used route, do it. It's just that once one is pulled from the steering column it could be spun around and messed up. That's why the new ones come with a locking mechanism to keep the inside from spinning.
 
Problems with used

the spin can go 3.5 turns in either direction, so you can recenter it, but you may have the same failure as everyone else, if its dirt cheap, go for it, else just get a new one. The resistance of wire will increase due to age, use or length of the wire and what the wire is made out of. So if we have a moving ribbon cable that ages, we have a combination that would/could cause an increase in wire resistance. Thereby making the steering wheel controls slowly go crazy. The wires do not have to be broken, just exercised and aged. Makes sense to me. Does this sound plausible to you?
 
Since it comes up so often I thought it was a problem with the original design and going aftermarket is what was meant about "replace (ie: with aftermarket) and not worry about it again". tks for clarification
 
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