Horn & Airbag light problems

[Jon & Janine]

Hi all

This is our first (no doubt of many.....) technical posts, please bear with us, we are not mechanically or common sense minded!

A while back the air bag light started to flash six times intermittently , then within a few days this turned into the air bag light continually flashing and the horn not working.

By using these very forums we learnt that we could have a problem with the clock spring. So using this information and a friend with dirty tools we proceeded to take the steering wheel and airbag off.

All three wires on the yellow connectors between the airbag and clock spring were sheared off at the clock spring end. After removing the clock spring we noticed that the Cancel Cam Combination Switch(?? Part 66-126) had the two protruding pieces of plastic, which would sit in the back of the Clock Spring, cut off.

We surmised that perhaps this was done by a previous owner in order to fit an after service steering wheel before we bought the vehicle?

Anyway, our first question is does that Cancel Cam Combination Switch need those plastic bits. i.e. do they keep the back of the clock spring in one position?

And is the yellow connector from the airbag to the clock spring a separate product, or does it come as part of the full clock spring assembly? If it is separate, is it a standard generic fitting designed for all vehicles (as its airbag related) or mazda specific.

Many thanks

Jon & Janine

[Bob]

Can't offer technical help, sorry, but welcome aboard.

[Spencer54]

Sounds like you have an aftermarket wheel fitted at some point and they've cut the clock spring up.
The airbag connector is looking for a resistance of 3.3ohms when it doesnt see this it starts to flash away.

The indicator cancelling bit (blue plastic) sounds like its been cut off which is also a sign that someone has bodged on a non Mazda wheel. The Mazda wheels have a hole at 6 and 12 oclock and the cancel cam lugs fit into these.
So when the wheel turns it resets the indicator stalk.
On the boss of the aftermarket wheels there's no holes - so people cut off the lugs.
Better solution is to drill holes in the boss so the cam fits and works as normal.

Good news is that this is all really easily fixable.

Options are:

Buy a new Bongo/626/323 steering wheel or complete column and replace the bits you need and set it back to standard.
Or upgrade to a RX8/M6 etc etc steering wheel.

Cheaper still is go into Maplins, buy a 3.3ohm resistor (70p) and connect it to the two wires that connect to the airbag module at the clockspring.

Horn being duff though could mean that the clockspring itself is shot - but its an easy DIY job, couple of screws and its off.

[Jon & Janine]

Thanks for the welcome and help.

We will try the some of the suggestions and post back how we get on with them.

Cheers

Jon & Janine