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Electrical Gremlins

1K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Windexcheese 
#1 ·
Hi Saab Fans

I have been lurking in these forums now for sometime, and read some very interesting posts. Having never experienced a problem with my 9-3 Tdi, since I bought it, 2 years ago the car must have got wind of this and thrown a wobblie.

All the steering wheel controls (horn, Radio volume etc) have stopped working :( . The radio works ok from the radios switch's and everything else is ok. I thought it would be a good idea to inspect the fuses, hoping that one had failed which would be an easy fix. Since I have removed each fuse in turn and checked it with a multimeter, (not finding a broken one), the air bag light is now illuminated and won't go out. Nothing has been done to the air bag and there is no reason for it to fail. Has this happened to anyone else, and is there someway to fix it? Even though no fuses have failed, the steering wheel switches still won't work!!

Thanks in advance

William
 
#2 ·
On the 900 ng model, the horn and the SRS share the same clockspring.

Then, does your horn operate ?

I do believe this a clockspring problem; I did check out the one in the '96 - it was fine.
But now the spring must handle the radio controls and there may have been some other changes.

Rumur has it that Haynes is due to publish a new manual, but will it be improved; will it have complete coverage ?
 
#3 · (Edited)
The steering wheel controls and horn are no doubt related to the clockspring being mangled, somehow.

The SRS light is on because you pulled the wrong fuse with the battery connected, I believe this is how you can 'safely' pull the fuse to the SRS and have it NOT trigger the light.

Downside, you need a tech2 to reset the SRS light....

-bny

EDIT: My thoughts got all mangled above. IF you disconnect the battery for 10 minutes, you are able to pull the SRS fuse without it THROWING the SRS light. You probably didn't know it would trigger the light, it did...
 
#4 ·
Hi Earthworm

Thanks for the message, I dont, fully understand the clockspring thingy :confused: I dont think its a idea for me to mess with the steering wheel in case the air bag explodes. I hope the new manual is good, because I really need one !!

William
 
#6 ·
The airbag system in saabs and any other car is "live" meaning that it will go out if there are no current codes. If you have an SRS light on, then you have a current fault. Given that your steering wheel controls are inoperative, as others have said, your likely culprit is the steering wheel clockspring. I would check to see if the horn works. If not, then you pretty well know what is wrong. The only way to know for sure is to have a tech II scan the car.
 
#7 ·
Windexcheese said:
The airbag system in saabs and any other car is "live" meaning that it will go out if there are no current codes. If you have an SRS light on, then you have a current fault. Given that your steering wheel controls are inoperative, as others have said, your likely culprit is the steering wheel clockspring. I would check to see if the horn works. If not, then you pretty well know what is wrong. The only way to know for sure is to have a tech II scan the car.
Not the case in my '92 9000...

Ask me how I know. SRS light on for 2 years now, no issues, it happened when I pulled the wrong fuse.

I believe the owners manual tells you this, somewhere in there...

-bny
 
#9 ·
This job, IMO, is not that difficult ; it help to have experience along these lines and to be at least a DIY "B"...

Disconnect the battery, disabling the SRS(air bags), the rest is easy.
The connection to the air bag unit is a very tight friction fit, a lever helps..
Removing, if necessary , the spring is more difficult,IMO... others here have done this...not I (no need)...
This whole thing may be nothing more than cleaning the contacts, and/or adjusting the pressure a tad..
 
#10 ·
Funny I fell upon this thread. I have a similar issue:

Today I took out the passenger seat to give it a good clean underneath as I have never done this. So I disconnected the seat un-screwed the bolts etc... Then I got a bit abitious and tried to remove the console between the pass and drivers seat. I started from the rear side of that console and took out the rear part where the vent is for the rear passengers. I got up to the part where I could see a metal box which said "caution airbag or abs" I dont remember which. After that I could not figure out how to take the rest apart so I just screwed it back on re-installed the seat and started the car and the air bag light went on.

What did I do?
 
#11 ·
I think my Saab has been subjected to some kind of witchcraft, or been spell bound by alien forces :evil: . It would appear that as soon as something goes wrong, the airbag goes out in sympathy, it never happened with the last two merc's I owned. The plus point here is, that there are nice people on this forum who try to help :D .

Rather than pay a bucket load of cash to the Saab Dealership in Shrewsbury, I today invest a modest amount of cash in a diagnostic interface to reset things. I thought it would be a good investment for future problems which will cause the airbag light to come on again (maybe a full ashtray, or a squashed fly on the windscreen could set it off :roll: ). As for my original problem with the Steering wheel switches, I am more than a little worried about the airbag going off when tampering with the steering wheel, how can I be sure it won't blow my head off by accident?

William
 
#12 ·
Disconnect the battery and wait a few minutes. And don't rub ballons on your head to generate static... ELECTRICITY.

Technically, static could set the charge off. Chances? slim, in my book.

But I'm with you, it's one thing I've always been sketched out about -- Especially since seeing one setoff in a car (in the seat) on purpose at an old place I used to work. Holy moly...

-bny
 
#13 ·
brewtide said:
Disconnect the battery and wait a few minutes. And don't rub ballons on your head to generate static... ELECTRICITY.

Technically, static could set the charge off. Chances? slim, in my book.

But I'm with you, it's one thing I've always been sketched out about -- Especially since seeing one setoff in a car (in the seat) on purpose at an old place I used to work. Holy moly...

-bny
Brewtide was that going to me? I will try that either way.

I also just got an obd2 reader (Elmscan 5 usb) and cannot seem to find a fault code coming up on my reader for the airbag. Is that normal. I dont think you can reset it through obd.
 
#14 ·
I stand corrected on my previous post - codes need to be reset before the light will go out. I should have checked my WIS before making the post...:roll:

Alas, OBDII only does engine management. SRS codes need to be cleared with an ISAT or TECH II...:(
 
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