kbrandsma

If you hear a lot of grinding noise when turning your steering wheel or you hear a grinding and/or squeaking noise from your steering wheel that gets worse over time or if you recently removed your steering wheel, you might get the infamous airbag light !!! AND when you take a Durametric tester and run the codes you get the following: Fault 21, Ignition circuit, driver is pretty common with these symptoms. Its probably time to remove the steering wheel and check your clockspring. The clockspring allows the steering wheel to turn up to 2 1/2 times around each way from dead center and it maintains electrical connections with your horn, steering wheel airbag and ground to earth connections. With the steering wheel removed check the Y shaped pins on the clockspring for signs of wear or fitment per photos below. Remember to disconnect your battery and leave keys out of the ignition before removing your steering wheel and airbag. Chances are that with grinding noise during turning your steering wheel, eventually these pins will break and the steering wheel will turn the clockspring by dragging the wires around with each turn and turning the clockspring with it, eventually this will cause breaking or a shorting of the wire connections and cause a Fault Code 21 Airbag light. If your wishbone shaped pins are ok, check for chaffed or damaged wires or clips. If they are broke, short of replacing the clockspring which isn't cheap ($150-$500 used/new), I would like to suggest the following. If your wishbone shaped pins are broke (they are very fragile) similar to photo below; Then go to Autozone or NAPA and purchase a variety pack of vacuum hose tube caps similar to the photos below for under $3.00: Then using the 1/8" Short and the 3/16" Short attach them to what's left of the wish bone shaped pin or stud. The rubber plugs make a snug replacement for a broken wishbone and fit perfectly into the steering wheel receptacle. The length can be shortened by cutting them with scissors or sharp utility knife on the open end of the cap, but probably won't be needed, unless the pinch nut on the wiper/turn signal stalk has been adjusted. This might of been the cause of the original wishbone stud breaking. You can test the fitment with your steering wheel before torqueing the wheel nut. Then, repair any damaged wire coming from your clock spring or recover the wires and protect them with shrink tubing or electrical tape, then correctly reinstall the clockspring and the steering wheel making sure the new rubber plugs fit correctly into the steering wheel at 12 and 6 o'clock. Reinstall your battery and reset your airbag fault codes with your Durametric Tool and then retest. You just saved yourself a bundle of $$$, now make a donation to Renntech!