2019 Ram 1500 Tradesman Classic. Clock spring wiring help.

[zoigna87]

Hello. Wasnt sure if this was more appropriate in the interior section or general.

I recently bought a 2019 Ram 1500 tradesman classic. The steering wheel buttons did not work. After searching for a solution it seemed the clock spring was known to go bad so i ordered and changed it. During the process of changing it I found a wire clip had been cut and they connected the wires together with resistors. I will add some pictures. Now i assume this is the airbag first because of the yellow clip matching the yellow clips into air bag. I didnt want to get into a bunch more work currently so i just left it how they had it taped the wires back up and put everything back together.

The steering wheel buttons all function now along with the horn etc so i assume the clock spring was bad. The airbag light came on and i got a message to service airbag system(which was not on before). I would of thought the resistors were a way to trick the system into thinking the airbags were hooked up but as soon as i change the clock spring the light comes on so maybe they did nothing at all or thats not their purpose? I just dont see what you would go through that trouble to hide the code with resistors if the broken clock spring was what was masking the problem anyways.

I guess my question is if i wanted to fix this myself would my next step be to put the wires back into the connector and see what happens? Any suggestions? Also i assume if i take the clock spring back off to fix it later i would need to buy another new one as i pulled the pin out to hook everything back up?

 

[Ken226]

Is there an airbag present? Was the airbag stolen or something?

It's hard to imagine someone doing something that stupid. Makes ya wonder what else they might have covered up to get it sold.

 

[zoigna87]

The air bag is there. I can see it in the back of the horn/airbag assembly. As far as the curtain and passenger bags i don't know.

Edit: Yeah it does kind of make you wonder. I have put around 2k miles on it since buying it and everything seems to work/run perfect(except the steering wheel buttons which now work).

 

[hemihustlin]

wow! good find! if you were ever in a crash that airbag would never have gone off!
they clearly disabled it and tried to hide the fact with the resistances fooling the light. thats almost criminal. definitely worth looking into who did what where!

yes its possible the clockspring was the cause of the airbag light in the first case but obviously diagnostics is too hard for these people.
im not sure how to check an airbag, safest way would be to order a new one, solder the cut wires and follow the procedure for installing a new airbag
are the cut wires harness side or airbag side? if airbag side they will likely come with a new bag. if harness side you must repair.

its entirely possible that the airbag is good and that there is another problem elsewhere but you must repair the wires and plug in a real scanner to see whats going on computer wise.

 

[zoigna87]

wow! good find! if you were ever in a crash that airbag would never have gone off!
they clearly disabled it and tried to hide the fact with the resistances fooling the light. thats almost criminal. definitely worth looking into who did what where!

yes its possible the clockspring was the cause of the airbag light in the first case but obviously diagnostics is too hard for these people.
im not sure how to check an airbag, safest way would be to order a new one, solder the cut wires and follow the procedure for installing a new airbag
are the cut wires harness side or airbag side? if airbag side they will likely come with a new bag. if harness side you must repair.

its entirely possible that the airbag is good and that there is another problem elsewhere but you must repair the wires and plug in a real scanner to see whats going on computer wise.

The clip that was cut does not go directly to the airbag. It goes into the back of the clock spring. Then out of the front of clock spring is the clip that goes into the airbag which is all intact. I have the old clip because they plugged it into to make it look complete. So my best bet would be repair the clip plug it in and see what happens from there?

 

[Ken226]

With this being such an obvious safety issue, whoever sold you this has some legal responsibility.

Individual seller or a car dealer?

Have you contacted them about this?

 

[zoigna87]

It was a private sale. Its been a few months and im pretty sure who i bought it off had bought it off someone else and turned around and flipped it they only had the car in their name for 2 months. So im sure when i call them its just going to be "That must of been how it was when I bought it i did nothing to the vehicle just bought and sold it "

 

[hemihustlin]

It was a private sale. Its been a few months and im pretty sure who i bought it off had bought it off someone else and turned around and flipped it they only had the car in their name for 2 months. So im sure when i call them its just going to be "That must of been how it was when I bought it i did nothing to the vehicle just bought and sold it "

i would bet it was an airbag deployed accident truck that they "fixed" and flipped
could be a faulty front impact sensor or wiring et cetra
like i said before and to respond to your other post i would not be going into this blind. get a good scanner and check the codes. see whats going on. after that proceed to repair the wire. you might find other things to repair once you plug the scanner in.

 

[zoigna87]

i would bet it was an airbag deployed accident truck that they "fixed" and flipped
could be a faulty front impact sensor or wiring et cetra
like i said before and to respond to your other post i would not be going into this blind. get a good scanner and check the codes. see whats going on. after that proceed to repair the wire. you might find other things to repair once you plug the scanner in.

Thanks for the advice. I didnt even think of that now that the light is on i should get a code or something and start there. As a kind of separate thing. Should i buy another clock spring as at some point I will have to take the current one off to repair the wire. Can it be reused once i pulled the pin to reassemble?

 

[hemihustlin]

Thanks for the advice. I didnt even think of that now that the light is on i should get a code or something and start there. As a kind of separate thing. Should i buy another clock spring as at some point I will have to take the current one off to repair the wire. Can it be reused once i pulled the pin to reassemble?

no. maybe someone that has done it alot might be able to save it but as a general rule its a 1 time use item

 

[pgoodwin79]

If they cut and wired resistors in the SRS system to bypass the airbag light timing to get it by inspection then there is no telling where else they might have also installed resistors to by pass the SRS system...just my opinion i would search your vin to see of it was ever part of a salvage sale that may still possibly have pictures from accident and you may be able to see if it had other airbag deployment if it was involved in a previous accident with airbag deployment

Websites like stat.vin with let you search for previous salvage sales from large sellers like copart and iaai

 

[zoigna87]

Just a small update.

I did pay for a carfax on the vehicle and it didnt show any accidents. Which i just means no reported accidents. I borrowed a decent code reader from a friend and the only codes i got from the srs system was
b0002-2b
b0001-2b
which are both "deployment control wires shorted together"
So im going to take the steering wheel back and apart and re connect them to the clip and retest.

I also got alot(6) of codes for light control
fog lamp switch-stuck
and then all the following circuit short/open
front right sidemarker lamp control
center stop lamp control
front left sidemarker lamp control
front left fog lamp control
license plate lamp control

Any guess on where to start trying to track that down? Would all those be on the same circuit and a short at one would backfeed to all?

Will change redo wires in a day or so and update again and see if i get any advice on where to start with lamp shorts.

 

[hemihustlin]

Just a small update.

I did pay for a carfax on the vehicle and it didnt show any accidents. Which i just means no reported accidents. I borrowed a decent code reader from a friend and the only codes i got from the srs system was
b0002-2b
b0001-2b
which are both "deployment control wires shorted together"
So im going to take the steering wheel back and apart and re connect them to the clip and retest.

I also got alot(6) of codes for light control
fog lamp switch-stuck
and then all the following circuit short/open
front right sidemarker lamp control
center stop lamp control
front left sidemarker lamp control
front left fog lamp control
license plate lamp control

Any guess on where to start trying to track that down? Would all those be on the same circuit and a short at one would backfeed to all?

Will change redo wires in a day or so and update again and see if i get any advice on where to start with lamp shorts.

first thing that makes me think of is LED lights in all those locations? if they dont have the proper resistance the computer will think its open. anyways thats minor, for now focus on repairing the airbag lights. with that done you will have a major sigh of relief. i imagine all the lights work at the moment?

this is good that the only srs codes are what you have already found!

good luck keep at it!

 

[kuma_76]

Cześć. Nie byłem pewien, czy to bardziej pasuje do działu wnętrzarskiego, czy ogólnego.

Niedawno kupiłem Rama 1500 Tradesman Classic z 2019 roku. Przyciski na kierownicy nie działały. Po znalezieniu rozwiązania okazało się, że sprężyna zegarowa jest uszkodzona, więc zamówiłem i wymieniłem ją. Podczas wymiany odkryłem, że jeden z zacisków został przecięty i połączyli przewody rezystorami. Dodam kilka zdjęć. Zakładam, że to poduszka powietrzna, ponieważ żółty zacisk pasuje do żółtych zacisków w poduszce powietrznej. Nie chciałem się teraz zbytnio angażować, więc zostawiłem to tak, jak było, zakleiłem przewody taśmą i złożyłem wszystko z powrotem.

Wszystkie przyciski na kierownicy działają teraz, klakson itp., więc zakładam, że uszkodzona była sprężyna zegarowa. Zapaliła się kontrolka poduszki powietrznej i pojawił się komunikat o konieczności serwisu systemu poduszek powietrznych (który wcześniej się nie świecił). Myślałem, że rezystory mają na celu oszukanie systemu, żeby uwierzył, że poduszki powietrzne są podłączone, ale jak tylko wymieniłem sprężynę zegarową, kontrolka się zapaliła, więc może nic nie zrobiły albo po prostu nie mają takiego celu? Po prostu nie rozumiem, po co miałbyś się tak męczyć, żeby ukryć kod rezystorami, skoro i tak uszkodzona sprężyna zegarowa maskowała problem.
Where you buy clock spring? Can you send me link?

 

[zoigna87]

Hello again. Just another update.

Turns out I didnt need the other clockspring for the reason i could access the wires without taking it off. I repined the clip with new terminals and plugged it back in and the airbag codes went away. So all good there.

On to finding the problems with lights. I did do a draw test on the battery as i noticed it sparks when i remove the ground to work on the steering wheel. Is it normal to start so high at 2.1 amps draw?Dropped to 1amp within 10sec then after 30min it was down to .023 which seems good if not a little lower then i thought it would be.

 

[hemihustlin]

.023 after the computers go to sleep is great.
and yes as you plug in the battery there will be an initial rush of current as all the modules power up