Cruise, horn air bag?

[privateer56]

I was emptying my 98 Legacy Outback 5 sp wagon and had rested it against another car, lightly.  When I backed up the air bag light went on, my horn stopped working as did my cruise control.  All fuses are ok in both boxes.  Are these three systems connected at any point?  Could this be a pinched/loose wire at the front AB sensor?  The pressure from the rest was almost negligible when I set it. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Fairtax4me]

Clockspring behind the steering wheel.

You didn't jerk any wires under the steering column did you?

[privateer56]

Didn't do anything with the steering column.  I will check it though. Thanks.

[Fairtax4me]

Then probably just coincidence that it happened at the same time you were doing something in the car. Its possible that if someone replaced the clockspring before that it wasn't installed correctly.

 

Poke under the steering column and find a black connector with either 3 or 4 wires.

One white, one green with a red stripe, and one black with a white stripe. If it has a 4th wire will probably be a plain black.

 

The green with red stripe is the 12v supply for the horn switch and the cruise button. There should be 12v present at that wire under the column.

Remove the airbag center from the steering wheel and you'll find the same green-red wire. Check for 12v on that wire inside the wheel. If you have 12v under the wheel, but none inside it, that's shows that the ribbon cable inside the clockspring is bad.

Check with online dealers for a good price on a new one. Used ones are often fine if you prefer to go that route.

 

If you've never done any work involving airbags before, the airbag system needs to be disabled before removing the airbag from the wheel.

Simply unhook the battery for about 10 minutes before doing the work. Depress the brake pedal and hold it for about a minute to fully discharge the capacitors in the airbag control module.

Once the airbag is removed and placed aside, you can reconnect the battery to do the testing. Before reconnecting the airbag, you'll need to disconnect the battery just as before.

 

The yellow connector for the airbag is tricky to disconnect. There is a yellow push tab and a green slider tab. Push the yellow tab down, slide the green tab over and hold it, then release the yellow tab and pull the connector apart.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Fairtax4me