FRC Shopper

I turned the steering wheel while the steering shaft was disconnected, and now my airbag light is on. If I'm not mistaken, I need to replace the clock spring. The dealer quoted me $860 plus tax for the job. According to them, in order to replace the clock spring, the entire air bag assembly must be changed. Is this correct?

xtremejimmy

im in the same boat. If anybody knows, I would appreciate the instructions.

Casem1

HA

No, just the clock spring. I went to Corvettes of Houston, they ordered a clock spring and installed it for me. No more light. It was my fault and I knew that the clockspring was the problem, I even heard the part break. Anyway, get a new one since they are 'locked' centered so there is no chance of busting it due to improper line up on install.

Oh yeah, it was under $250 for the part and the labor.
I think the service manual has the directions for replacement, but I wasn't going to handle a live airbag in my garage.

FRC Shopper

Wow, what a timely response since I'm finally getting ready to address this problem. Gene Cully quoted me $76 for the clock spring, so the $250 Corvettes of Houston charged you is very reasonable. Thanks for the info! Hopefully I can find a shop that can do it for a reasonable price. It appears the tools I'd need to get just to pull the steering wheel properly would cost more than $250.

Konrad

I've done one on my last Vette. Casem1 is right. All you need to change is the clock spring and like Gene told you, it's only $76 plus labor from a private Vette shop. I don't think I'd go to the dealership even if it was the last resort. Good luck

Pro Street

How did you break it?

leadfoot4

A friend and I pulled the lock plate on his '01 vert a couple of weeks back. Shortly thereafter, he got an "airbag light". He spoke with someone at a dealership who said it was probably the clock spring. They said it would be around $350 to replace it.

ajg1915

It's a pretty simple job to replace yourself. It only goes on one way. You have to pull a few fuses and connectors, the take steering wheel apart.

Takes a couple of hours at most. Napa sells sells steering wheel puller for like $40. You need one with J-hooks.

Had mine apart to install VE Steering wheels on mine and my brothers cars.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Typically occurs during cam swaps; when you have the steering rack out and the steering column disconnected, the steering wheel is free to spin, and the clock spring only has so many revolutions in it before it breaks.

Spinning the steering wheel while detached will also generate codes related to steering wheel position sensor miss-alignment.

Bottom line, when you disconnect the steering rack, don't turn the steering wheel.

pk1

Bought the clock spring from Gene. It was about a 3 hour job, the only hard part was getting the steering wheel off. The dealer wanted $850.00

leadfoot4

I know, as his car was the second car I did a lock plate on. The first was mine, and I had zero problems. On his, however, we hit a couple snags. The first was that the telescope motor wouldn't work when we were done, even though we didn't touch it. Then the airbag light came on and wouldn't go out.

I offered to go back over to his house and take it apart again to see if we could find anything simple, but he had some pressing family issues and didn't want to spend the time, so he took it to the dealer....

ajg1915

No critizism intended, just was trying to save you a couple of bucks. He may have had other problems if he had a blower or disconnected rack from some other earlier work.

Smart thing to do is to put a bungie cord on steering wheel to hold it in place and mark steering shaft before you take it apart for any front motor work or header installs.

I have telescopic wheel too and when I took mine apart it was a B%&tch to get off the steering wheel, after that it went really smooth. I put some of that aluminum thread protection (anti-sieze) on steering wheel sprocket to make it easier to get the steering wheel off the next time.

94legaleagle

BEST BET: when removing the steering rack for any purpose, including h/c swap, etc, center the front wheels and steering wheel and tie a piece of rope from the drivers seat around the steering wheel so that the steering wheel CANNOT turn in either direction, even if you try to turn it. - used this method 2X and no problems

VIPERBLUELX

Is there a write-up anywhere? I had a cam installed in mine and they broke the clock spring so I'm gonna tackle this thing so I can get the light out.

ajg1915

http://www.nuclearbunny.org/~chadwic...steeringwheel/

LinearX

I'd make 'em buy the part for you.

VIPERBLUELX

Yeah I'm working on that.

sam-garcia

the link doesn't work, Does anyone out there have a write up for how to replace the clockspring on a c5? so far I have the clockspring, steering wheel puller and legs, and new steering wheel nut. I am missing the procedure though... someone please help. I'm trying to get this done this weekend.