My SRS light just came on tonight. I dont know the cause of it.

A week ago my steering joint came loose and I actually had to tow the car to retighten it. After retightening it, the shop didnt actually align my steering wheel and now, straight is basically 30 degrees to the left. While it the joint was loose I lost position of what center was on the steering wheel and it seemed like you can turn in one direction forever.

I am guessing the clicking noises from the steering wheel are because the wheel is centered too much in one direction because the center was lost. This is what it sounded like when the joint was loose and I just turned the wheel to see what would happen. It is the same noise but I am wondering if it will do any damage? Maybe that is why my SRS light went on?

Also is there an easier way to align the steering joint, so that my steering wheel would actually be straight when I am driving straight? It seemed pretty hard to get the splines into the joint. The shop actually had to use a pry bar and a hammer to kinda push it in.

 

When your steering was disconnected, it was allowed to rotate 360 degrees.

You now have a broken clockspring (aka cable cable reel) since the wheel was off 360 degrees, the clocksping went over its max when you turned the wheel to max in one direction. Hence why the car was fine when you drove it away from the shop, and the problem surfaced in the future.

The clicking noise is the broken clockspring.

You prolly have no horn or cruise control either.

300+ bucks for the part alone if I had to guess.

 

In other words, the clockspring has a max of 3 turns in either direction.

If you disconnect the steering, turn the wheel 360, and put it back on, it is one full turn out of time.

Now when you turn the wheel to max, you turn the clockspring 4 turns and break it.

 

is that why my SRS light is on too?

what can a damaged clock spring do? is it in need of immediate replacement? or can I wait a week or so?

 

should i align my steering joint now? or wait till the installation of the clock spring?
whats the easiest way to align the steering joint as it seemed pretty difficult for the shop to do it.

 

Yes, thats why srs light is on.

It wont hurt to drive it, but you will have no airbag, criuse, or horn.

I'd wait to align it after the clockspring.

 

Also known as the cable reel if you couldn't find the part. If you get lucky, you could probably pick one up on ebay.

Otherwise you can attempt to fix it as I did with mine, as the break is quite obvious after you open one up, just strip the ribbon to expose the trails, tape em to the right side (one side is shiny, the other is matte). Works a treat until you can pick one up for cheap I guess, or just live without SRS/Cruise/Horn for a while.

 

why not blame the shop for this??? they the ones who messed it up in the first place

 

i dont know what the shops gonna do about it. all they did was tighten the steering joint.