Airbag light on/clicking from steering!

[AlexB]

It's a two stage airbag, so it has two ignition circuits (a pair of wires each) plus ground. It is in the circuit diagrams (in our Links). I will add the appropriate links to the sticky thread above, as nobody looks in Links...

It is hard to say why there are 7 tracks in the ribbon. This is why I asked about the horn circuit.

[triumph2.5man]

Well Dave, as I understand it, the airbag needs a permanent connection to ensure reliability. You would not necessarily get that with sliprings and sprung brushes. After a high mileage it is not unknown for the sliprings to wear through resulting in a non-working horn. The ribbon system is a good one.....until it goes wrong! When it goes wrong at least all the ribbon tracks break at the same time. To have an intermittent connection with sliprings could result in airbag deployment at the wrong time perhaps. All I can say is that all car makers use the clockspring method (as far as I know.....). Incidentally it takes four wires to detonate the Meg airbag, the fifth being earth.
Only one question.....?
Cheers, Mike

[davelowe]

Mike,

Sorry for the multitude of questions rather than just the one!

Dave
(the curious)

[Paddy]

Just a couple of questions from myself.

My car has started to develop the 'clicking'. If I look through the small gap I think I can see the cable over lapping. But no airbag light as of yet. If the cable is not broken is it possible to 'save' it?

When the clicking started I noticed my horn now does not work. (fuses checked ect).
Could this problem effect the contact of the slip rings? Im running with a upgraded Stebel Nautilus without relay so I imgain that it is putting more load on the circuit.

Regards

P

[Paddy]

fellas?

[joeishmather]

I have to disagree with the above as I had mine out and put it back in when I added the oem cruise control, it's just a simple ribbon wire you have to put it back the correct way but there's no real difficulty to it..

[joeishmather]

Yeah that fair enough comment if the ribbons knackered, if it still ok tho and just out of place, which it often is, just put it back! lol
Mine sprang out when I wa lookin where to attach the feed for the buttons onto that ribbon wire, after attaching the buttons it just went back into place

[Paddy]

The unit is a £125 new from Renault. If it can be bodged, bodged it will be.

Im looking a R26 at present not forking that out for a motor I want rid of.

[Surfhunny]

I know this is an old thread, but hoping someone will see it. My steering wheel started clicking last night and today the airbag and service light came on. Being completely clueless about the working of cars other than how to change bulbs and wheels I rang my Dad and he told me it might be the rotary switch, I looked it up and found this thread and it sounds exactly like this is what the problem is!! I'm just wondering if it's okay to drive it. From what Dad says and I can gather from here, so long as I don't crash and need the airbag, I'll be okay. It's just that I can't get it to a garage until Monday and I need to get to work in the meantime.
Hope someone sees this.

Renault Meagane Coupe Cabriolet 1.6 VVT Dynamique
54 Plate

[Surfhunny]

yes you can drive away on it it's only the ribbon that holds the wire to send the charge to the airbag to blow out in case of a crash etc

Nice one, thanks for the speedy reply!!!

[jedijones666]

Yet again I find myself researching another strange happening with my Megane and it doesn't take long to stumble upon a thread of fellow owners having the same joyous motoring experiences.

It took two days from first hearing the noise from behind the steering wheel to when the ribbon snapped, and now (as many times before) my dash lights up like BLACKPOOL ILLUMINATIONS!

Phoned the Renault dealer today and was quoted £258.97 to replace the white clockspring ribbon cable -ouch!

Anyway, after reading previous posts I understand the ribbon is only long enough to go from lock to lock - I first heard the noise after I turned hard left into a car park; my steering wheel doesn't align perfectly straight when I drive straight and I was wondering if this miss-alignment could have been the causing factor? Reason I ask: if I have this expensive repair carried out would it be wise to first get my steering aligned (so the wheel is true when going straight- it is not out by loads but I'm thinking it may been enough to cause the problem)?

My second question: Is it possible to turn of the airbag warning light and service light ? I would have thought turning the airbag off via the knob would have sorted this, but no. Any help/ insight would be appreciated.