Question on Airbag Failure???

[K_Arts]

Ok guys... My wifes truck is having a weird problem.



Everytime we take a sharp turn or just make a turn where we really have to crank the steering wheel, once inside of the turn, the dash board starts dinging at us and the Airbag light comes on. (Just as an FYI, I have isolated this problem down to turning the steering wheel).



What does the airbag have to do with how much the steering wheel is turned? I was wondering if maybe the clock spring was going bad but the Horn and the stereo seem to work just fine.



Any ideas???

 

[mimprevento]

Take back to dealer

The clockspring sits in the steering wheel hub and has been implicated in several complaints to DC including some incidents where an airbag did not deploy in a collision. Some Rams have been recalled. See NHTSAs website for info on the Engineering Analysis set up for clockspring failure- get the vehicle into the dealer ASAP and ask for a fix. I have a confirmed failure in a 97 Plymouth minivan during a collision which resulted in injuries- DC knows they have problems on the horizon with these- the causes are varied- you may be geting interference with a component of the steering wheel or there may be a wiring defect in the clockspring itself.

 

[RCrawford]

My wifes Durango would do something like this. When she was going down the road, first the Air Bag light would come on, then the gauges would go dead, then the dingers would start. The problem always happened in this order, but all things started back working at the same time. Didn't have any kind of pattern thow. After three days at the "Dealer", they told us the dash cluster was bad. They replaced it. Problem gone. I road with one of the Tech's on a test drive and he liked to talk. Said DC had put the wrong clusters in some vehicles, seamed to be '98's and '99's mostly. Good Luck, RC.

 

[mimprevento]

Airbag

The dealer needs to read your system with a DRBII which is DCs method for determining if there is a problem with the airbag system- you need piece of mind if the system will not fire the bag during impact- it could be a number of things but I would not continue to keep driving the vehicle until I knew- make sure if it is a clockspring problem you notify NHTSA's Office of Defect Investigation- they are collecting data as fast as DC is trying to cover it up