New steering wheel woe's

[gigglebug]

HI all

I bought brand new Fiesta MK4 (I think, its finis number is 1100821) steering wheel as the one in my Puma has suffered badly from the horrible melting effect. I swapped them over this afternoon and the only thing I had to do was swap over a plug from the old to the new wheel as they differed slightly, it was the one that connects into the socket that emits directly from the dash. The new steering wheel didn't come with an airbag so I refitted the existing one. I followed the instructions in the thread below and they were tops.

http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=66&p=329835&hilit=remove+steering+wheel#p329835

Unfortunately I now have a flashing airbag light, 3 flashes at a time then a constant light. I can't find a definitive answer as to what 3 flashes indicates so was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of it. The horns still work but I gather these aren't connected to the clock spring so could it be that that is damaged? I'm leaving the battery disconnected over night to do a hard reset to see if that makes any difference.

Is there a fundamental difference between how the Mk4 Fiesta's and late Puma's electric's to the airbag worked which would cause the fault? I assumed that as I was using the same airbag it would reduce the likelihood of a problem.

I don't really want to have to swap back as it's a perfect colour match, slightly larger wheel which suits me and is obviously in new condition.

 

[gigglebug]

Red I've just noticed you had flashing airbag lights as well, you can't remember how many they were can you?

 

[Ian G]

There are a number of different airbag / tensioner / control box combinations between Fiesta 4 / 5 and various ages of Pumas.

Clarify for me, you used the wiring that was attached to the wheel and altered that to suit the car? That sounds like your problem based on the flashes. Ideally you would use all the Puma equipment and fit that to the Fiesta wheel. If you've chopped that I can send you another one to fit to the Fiesta wheel. If you've chopped the car side you might be in more trouble.

 

[gigglebug]

Morning Ian, thanks for the reply.

Yes I just removed the Puma airbag and wheel, swapped over the connector from the Puma wheel to the Fiesta wheel then attached the fiesta wheel with the Puma airbag back onto the car. Luckily I didn't do any chopping as you can take the connectors off and swap them over without any problems. I did try to swap the wire from the inside of the wheel to the back of the airbag as well as again the connector was a slightly different design even though it did fit but I couldn't work out how to get them out and I ran out of time at the garage.

So do you think my best course of action is to dismantle both wheels and swap as much over from the Puma wheel to the Fiesta wheel as I can? I know you must be able to remove the clock spring assembly as I have seen then for sale but I couldn't see an obvious way of doing it and like I say I tried to remove the wire from the centre of the wheel and couldn't do that either.

 

[gigglebug]

Sorted. Swapped over the clock spring part and all is good! New wheel in and looks and feels a lot better, slightly larger diameter than the original but this actually feels more comfortable as it suits my shoulder width better. Would probably rub on my knees with a standard seat fitted though but no probs as my seat is lower.

 

[demonskull13]

[post]348806[/post] Sorted. Swapped over the clock spring part and all is good! New wheel in and looks and feels a lot better, slightly larger diameter than the original but this actually feels more comfortable as it suits my shoulder width better. Would probably rub on my knees with a standard seat fitted though but no probs as my seat is lower.

looking good glad to hear you sorted the airbag light

Jason

:twisted: ose2: k:

 

[gigglebug]

Cheers

The old one was all rough in the hand and even worse when it got hot was all sticky, pretty nasty really. I thought the new one was going to be a slightly different colour from the description and pictures of it, darker if anything, so was lining up an airbag to match but as it turned out it was an exact match so that was a bonus. The bigger size would definitely have been a problem with a standard seat though but it's fine in my car and actually has reduced the slight shoulder strain I got with the standard wheel.

Getting rid of the airbag light was a definite bonus as I had only checked online during the week and found that the MOT runs out on the 30th of this month so it's booked in Tuesday. Bit lucky really, I bought the car October and hadn't given the MOT date a single thought until then so I could have easily have missed it! Would have been a bit ironic if I'd have managed to fcuk something last minute as it should go through with nothing to report hopefully!