Airbag light on, horn not working after steering wheel swap

spongebob squarepants · 6 Dec 2019

So final stage of Herman's refit and following installation of the Alcantara wheel I have red airbag warning and no horn. So I've changed seatbelts, seats (GT2 with side airbag) and steering wheel, (although it's essentially the same steering wheel going back on)

All the wiring is connected correctly, I'm thinking the airbag warning light may be to do with the seats? Recoding? (The previous and these have side airbags)

More worried re the horn, having done this a few times it's sitting correctly and defo not snagged, springs are almost new.

Any ideas :?

deMort · 6 Dec 2019

Tricky as several airbag items have been replaced .. if you have any kind of fault code reader then obviously a fault code would help .

Once an airbag light is on then it can only be turned off with a tester so fixing the problem will still leave the airbag light on .

If you have the old steering wheel then refit it .. does the horn work ? if yes then look at the wiring for both wheels / airbag as something must be different between them .

It's a bit of a coincidence that the horn And the airbag light are on so i suspect the steering wheel airbag , wiring to be at fault here .

spongebob squarepants · 6 Dec 2019

Thanks Iain,

It's the same steering wheel going back on, (wheel recovered in Alcantara, the base plastic part was changed as steering wheel was an exchange one) and the airbag unit is the same one that came off :dont know:

deMort · 7 Dec 2019

The base plastic part ? this is inside the steering wheel and the airbag will locate into it ?

Sorry but i normally look at things to figure out a fault ...

If this is the case then i would start there ..

basically if its the same steering wheel and the same airbag then only this part seems to have changed that might cause the horn fault .

after this .. check to see if there's a fuse for the horn and then it's onto a fault code read out .

EDIT ..

Just a thought but is it plugged in properly and is it possible the clock spring could have moved whilst the wheel was off the car ?

A fault code readout will say if its a broken clock spring .

short-shift · 8 Dec 2019

With regards the seat swap, this should not trigger an airbag warning lamp so long as the ignition was never 'keyed on' during the time that the seats were out of the car (more correctly, during the time that the seats were disconnected at the yellow under-seat connector). But I think you had the battery disconnected at all times so this shouldn't even be a possibility?

As you say, both the old and the new seats have side (thorax) bags and they will integrate and function normally. If the lamp is on as a result of the seat swap, a simple reset of the warning light will likely suffice - you just need an appropriate diagnostics unit/scanner to plug in or a visit to a dealer to achieve the reset.

Interestingly, the fact that you have replaced your older electrical seats with the newer manual adjust buckets will mean some issues whenever the car is tested or diagnosed at a Porsche dealer. They will find some VAL (Vehicle Activity Log) errors being thrown up as a result of the car 'looking for', and failing to find, the original electric seats. But this isn't a functional problem and doesn't result in the warning lamp coming on. You could get the car coded to recognise that it now has mechanical seats fitted but that would need to be reversed if you ever refit the original seats. My advice would be to ignore the VAL flags - as I say, it's only an issue when the car is assessed by OPCs.

No ideas on the horn, I'm afraid, although as said above it could be that the airbag warning lamp is related to that - rather than the seat - particularly as the horn isn't working.

In any event, it will turn out to be something trivial!!

James

spongebob squarepants · 9 Dec 2019

deMort said:
The base plastic part ? this is inside the steering wheel and the airbag will locate into it ?

Sorry but i normally look at things to figure out a fault ...

If this is the case then i would start there ..

basically if its the same steering wheel and the same airbag then only this part seems to have changed that might cause the horn fault .

after this .. check to see if there's a fuse for the horn and then it's onto a fault code read out .

EDIT ..

Just a thought but is it plugged in properly and is it possible the clock spring could have moved whilst the wheel was off the car ?

A fault code readout will say if its a broken clock spring .

Demort,

Clock spring definitely not moved. Same airbag/horn unit going back in. The steering wheel was an 'exchange" from royal, so the plastic base with my parts swapped onto it. Wished I hadn't done that as I'm now suspecting that's where the issue may lie.

I've ordered a foxwell NT530 scanner, so fingers crossed it will identify the issue(s).

spongebob squarepants · 9 Dec 2019

short-shift said:
With regards the seat swap, this should not trigger an airbag warning lamp so long as the ignition was never 'keyed on' during the time that the seats were out of the car (more correctly, during the time that the seats were disconnected at the yellow under-seat connector). But I think you had the battery disconnected at all times so this shouldn't even be a possibility?

As you say, both the old and the new seats have side (thorax) bags and they will integrate and function normally. If the lamp is on as a result of the seat swap, a simple reset of the warning light will likely suffice - you just need an appropriate diagnostics unit/scanner to plug in or a visit to a dealer to achieve the reset.

Interestingly, the fact that you have replaced your older electrical seats with the newer manual adjust buckets will mean some issues whenever the car is tested or diagnosed at a Porsche dealer. They will find some VAL (Vehicle Activity Log) errors being thrown up as a result of the car 'looking for', and failing to find, the original electric seats. But this isn't a functional problem and doesn't result in the warning lamp coming on. You could get the car coded to recognise that it now has mechanical seats fitted but that would need to be reversed if you ever refit the original seats. My advice would be to ignore the VAL flags - as I say, it's only an issue when the car is assessed by OPCs.

No ideas on the horn, I'm afraid, although as said above it could be that the airbag warning lamp is related to that - rather than the seat - particularly as the horn isn't working.

In any event, it will turn out to be something trivial!!

James

James,

Battery disconnected throughout, The GT2 Bucket seats are 997 (2 cushion) so I'm still wondering if that's caused any issue :dont know:

Whatever the issue, resetting the airbag warning light will surely resolve the issue (as there isn't an issue!) :grin:

Airbag light on, horn not working after steering wheel swap

spongebob squarepants

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