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Facts about the cheap $10 ClockSpring/Spiral cable

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by 1stGuage, Jul 24, 2018.

  1. 1stGuage

    1stGuage New Member

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    I am a body man in Ohio W/ 45 years experience in the business.
    Started at age 16 in 1972
    I have put in 50 or 100 clock Springs ( some people call them spiral cable) in many different cars.
    Starting with when they were metal complicated junk.

    You can trust this review of this particular clock spring. I know what I am doing, I bought it on E-Bay, looked it over closely & installed it on a 2004 Toyota Prius with every conceivable button on the steering wheel.

    There are people who will tell you " you don't want to trust your airbag to a $10 clock spring."
    They are wrong.
    The reason this cost $10 is because that's what it should cost.
    If you have ever taken one of these apart, ( or seen it on video) .. there's simply nothing to them. About 10 feet of ribbon cable that probably would cost a manufacturer about 2 or 3 cents when bought in bulk, A couple of Teflon pads to make sure that the ribbon cable slides easily, and some connecting wires and plugs & the plastic housing.
    They probably have two or three dollars wrapped up in this and I'm being generous.
    Toyota sells these for $200+ and maybe that's an example of gouging. Although it's entirely possible the Toyota has a little more $ wrapped up .. When you consider the government involvement that you have to pay for .. to certify the airbags will work.
    The government probably charges them some money because that's what they do...
    to do... nothing ..
    So.. I'll will give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

    Now, about 'your airbags and a $10 clock spring'.
    Every time you start your car your airbag light goes through a check routine that checks all the connections and checks the resistance of the system, in various places, to verify that it perfectly matches a correct working system.
    If anything is amiss, your airbag light will come on.
    SO BE AWARE AND EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, LOOK FOR YOUR AIRBAG LIGHT ON START-UP. If you don't see your airbag light, it could be burned out and you have no idea if your airbags will work or not.
    But if you see your airbag light flash when you start the car and go out, you know that your airbags are 'ready to go' in case of an accident.
    If you replace this clockspring and you get 100,000 miles out of it (which I'm sure you will get 200K) ...well... you've got an hour invested and $10 ( Instead of the $700 that Toyota charges ) you could do it again several times and still be way ahead..
    And as you probably know the reason why your airbag light comes on, Or buttons on the steering wheel stop working, related to the clock spring is the ribbon cable breaks where it goes into the centermost point, and that is the factory Toyota part. Usually happens around 200 to 250K miles. But it's been known to happen much earlier, indicating that the Toyota factory part is of no special quality. (In fact I would say that this part is a planned obsolescence part.)

    I wouldn't be surprised to find that there's only one Factory in China making all these clock springs.

    My suggestion to you is to buy it on Amazon or Ebay where you see the seller has been there for a while, and they have a lot of positive reviews..
    if you look at the pictures you'll see where I bought mine and THIS IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF THAT COMPANY. Any company that has good data/feedback and a 1-year replacement guarantee.. Is what I'd look for

    When compared with the OEM part,
    This aftermarket $10 Clockspring appeared, to this experience body man, to be every bit the quality of the factory Toyota part.

    I was also concerned before I got it, that it would have enough connections for the numerous steering wheel controls that this loaded up little Prius has.
    It certainly does.
    It is not difficult to put in
    Plenty of YouTube videos walking through it.
    Just be sure to start with your wheels pointing forward straight & steering wheel centered. Put a piece of tape on your steering wheel & to the column + cut it as a mark.. before you remove it so that when you put it back on you have it in the same place and do not pull out the pin holding the new clockspring centered until you're ready to put the steering wheel on.
    it's actually a very easy install I can do one in about 15 or 20 minutes, you should be able to do one ..the first time.. easily in about an hour.

    I would say,.
    if you can take out a headlight of a modern car and put a complete new headlight back in.... you can do this clock spring.
    In summary,

    Save yourself some money & Don't fear the cheap clock spring.
    Vetted seller & I'm sure you'll find it of good quality, plus your airbag system checks itself for problems every time you start your car.
    You will be just fine.. for many miles to come..
    J.E.M. IMG_20180723_180731.jpeg IMG_20180724_084603.jpeg IMG_20180724_084827.jpeg

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #1 1stGuage, Jul 24, 2018
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Interestingly, just this morning this same poster reanimated an older thread that presented a more complete range of data and opinion on this question. That older one had been started by 3prongpaul, also an experienced mechanic with a well-known hybrid shop and a good, long reputation on PriusChat.

    His experience does seem to have included some DOAs and some unexpectedly-short (under a year) lifespans. Searching on PriusChat can turn up similar reports.

    This testing task is similar to testing the ground wiring at your house. It's supposed to be there, and it normally carries negligible current, and the only time anybody really cares about it is when some electrical event needs it to carry a lot of current, and that's when you find out if it can.

    Everybody has seen this kind of outlet tester at one time or other:

    [​IMG]

    It has three little lights, one for the ground wire. If it doesn't light up, you know there's a problem. As long as it lights up, you know there is some connection there—but it can easily be just enough of a connection to light the tiny light in the tester. (Ever looked at some of the "wiring techiques" you find when you take the wallplate off? Sometimes you find ground wires just barehanded a couple twists around, not even a wire nut. Some people doing the work know that will be enough to light a tester light and seem ok, and that's good enough for them.)

    More recently, there's a new kind of outlet tester that can do some extra tricks, like this one and others similar to it:

    [​IMG]

    It is able to, for a brief instant, dump a serious current down your ground wiring and tell you what happened to the resistance then. One obvious problem, still, is most newer wiring has a GFCI, which instantly kicks off when a tester like this tries to really test the ground. (I think that might be worked around by a custom cable to test the ground of outlet A using power from some non-GFCI outlet B, but I haven't tried that yet.)

    The obvious, even thornier problem for the airbag self-test system is that if it ever tested with the sort of current needed to blow the airbag, it would blow the airbag. :) So it, also, tests with tiny currents, and hopes to extrapolate.

    The article that 3prongpaul linked to in his post was a news article quoting information from a Toyota bulletin that directly pertained to counterfeit spiral cables. Other excerpts from that bulletin can be found (I haven't scared up the whole thing, but it might be on techinfo if I wanted to feed the meter). They include:



    I don't know all the answers, but I know the OP here has oversimplified the questions.

    -Chap
     
    #2 ChapmanF, Jul 25, 2018
    bisco likes this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    business must be off. when do the tariffs kick in?

    maybe you want to participate in a forum for awhile before schilling a product.:rolleyes:

    shows why america is hooked on cheap chinese products.
     
    #3 bisco, Jul 25, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2018
  4. 1stGuage

    1stGuage New Member

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    Checking with Toyota about non Toyota parts... is asking the barber if you need a haircut.


    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

    }}business must be off. when do the tariffs kick in?{{

    I'm retired

    }}maybe you want to participate in a forum for awhile before schilling a product{{
    1972 to 2018 aint enough ? OK..
    Are you talking to me about Schilling product ? Or are you talking to the guy who makes a much larger markup on $170 part over $10.00 one? I'm 4real not sure who you talking to...

    }}shows why america is hooked on cheap chinese products.{{
    I think reason is $10 vs $180 for the same part..

    But its just a subtle gut feeling..
    Could be wrong
    -Rick Sanchez

    awww Ohhh Jeez Rick ...


    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #4 1stGuage, Jul 25, 2018
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 26, 2018
  5. 1stGuage

    1stGuage New Member

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    Hey, if Money were no object.. I'd never buy an aftermarket part ( or, actually, wouldn't own a car that needed a part )
    .
    But when Toyota is charging $200 for two plastic pieces with a 10 ft ribbon Cable in the middle ... Well.. they kind of brought it on themselves.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #5 1stGuage, Jul 25, 2018
  6. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Fair point. Then again, sometimes the barber goes on to say why they recommend the haircut and the reasons are germane and amenable to testing/confirmation, and you find a forum with a history of posts on others' experience with your hair length.

    I'll go out on a limb and say I guessed bisco was talking to you, probably saw the "joined: Tuesday" in your member info and didn't realize you meant Tuesday, 1972. Mistake anybody could make.

    -Chap
     
    #6 ChapmanF, Jul 26, 2018
    1stGuage and bisco like this.
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i have never installed one, and can only go by the experiences of others here, and there have been a lot of problems with chinese clock springs reliability.

    with 40 years as a mech, hopefully you will have more to offer than clock spring recommendations. we will be watching.(y)
     
    #7 bisco, Jul 26, 2018
  8. 1stGuage

    1stGuage New Member

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    I'm a body man..
    Ask me anything bout that
    ( clock springs are in my wheelhouse.. every time an airbag goes off you got to replace the clockspring.. (Not really, but insurance companies insist) but I have to admit that I retired about the time they were coming in and I probably only have down about 100 maybe maybe 75.. Who knows
    All I want to do is dentz, and make romance...

    http://tinyurl.com/lukesZ3

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #8 1stGuage, Jul 26, 2018
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