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Air Bag warning light stays on AND Cruise control flashes...help

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Tynyyn, Jun 7, 2023.

  1. Tynyyn

    Tynyyn Member

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    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Model:
    II
    As the title says, I have a problem. When this problem began I replaced the clock spring. Once it was installed the problem presisted so I took the steering wheel air bag out and saw that a connector was not pushed in properly and locked into place. I pushed the connecter home and buttoned the steering wheel back up and all was good for a couple of weeks. Then the air bag warning light lit up and the cruise control would flash when I engaged the button on the stalk. So I pulled the new clock spring out and replaced it with another new one. This time I made sure the connector was seated properly before I buttoned the steering wheel back up. Now, a couple of weeks has gone by and the same symptoms has begun again. The air bag warning light is on constantly and the cruise control light flashes.

    Since I'm on my third clock spring for this condition I'm wondering if there is another fix for this condition. Could the steering wheel air bag be bad? Could the cruise control stalk be bad? Tossing all this out there to see if anybody has some insight into this problem

    Thanks.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Are you using oem clock springs or fake Chinese junk?
     
  3. Tynyyn

    Tynyyn Member

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    Well, fake Chinese junk, of course. It's hard to pass up a $18 clock spring on Ebay. But if you think that's the problem I'll certainly look into the more expensive option.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i can only tell you that it has been reported here that they fail early and often
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Will asking the car for what it thinks the problem is ever start to look worthwhile?
     
  6. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    I've installed both I haven't really had any problems yet with the cheap clock springs. With the cheap inverter pumps absolutely I just went away from the flat pancake pump permanently. But the clock springs I've had no problems with and I've got 60K on one. Generally I usually have enough spare parts cars around that I can just jerk the clock spring off of any of them it just takes literally 18 minutes so I haven't really had to play a lot with the cheap Chinese junk but I have one or two that are in use. And now I've gutted three or four more seven to nine generation twos so I have plenty