Airbag Light On After Shop Visit.

Hello Tacoworld

I had a local shop replace my power steering rack.

I noticed on the drive home from the shop that my airbag light on the dash is on.
I'm going to go back to the shop and ask questions, but in the mean time are there any checks I could be doing to figure out why it's suddenly on?

I suspect they may have disconnected something during the work.

2006 V6 SR5 DC LB.

Thanks!

 

I'm guessing you got an issue with your ribbon cable or clock spring connection.

Pretty common when the steering wheel is not locked from spinning during a rack replacement.

I've replaced a bunch. The Toyota part is $200+ or you can get a Chinese version of eBay for $50.

I've used both and I can tell no difference. I'm confident Toyota gets theirs from the same vendor.

 

Either this or they pulled the steering wheel off to center it and fucked up spiral cable

 

Yea could be coincidence but most likely the steering wheel was rotated with the steering shaft disconnected and the clockspring (spiral cable) was damaged.

I'd take it back to them and explain that the light wasn't on prior to the work and give them the chance to make it right.

 

It's a 30 minute job if you've never pulled the steering wheel air bag.

15 minutes if you've done it before.

Just make sure the battery is disconnected before pulling the air bags.

 

You could check it via the on board DTC method.
But it can be aggravating. I'd personally just take it back and ask them "NICELY" to look into the issue.

Should you want to do the "Poke and Count" - Here is the "How To" (Not worth your time)
Count the lights and give us your code. We can then tell you what the code is for.

 

This is interesting! I could probably build my own test wire...

 

paper clip, bread tie wire.....
Doesn't have to be anything special

 

Just don't go shoving it into the terminals and spread the terminals in the OBD port.

 

Does the horn still work?

 

This is what I'm thinking, or its just a huge coincidence somehow.

 

I would just do a quick check to make sure the sensors on the front of the vehicle didn't get left unplugged (although unlucky it's possible) just pop the hood and/or look through the grill they should have yellow tape on the harness.

That being said...

My suspicion is that the steering wheel clock spring was broken.

 

This is a good point, I've been looking for a specific 2nd Gen thread for airbag light troubleshooting but can't seem to find much.

 

Getting the codes is step 1 in troubleshooting, once you have those then we can move on to checking/testing. Otherwise we don't know what to check/test.
There's no need to unplug any SRS components during a steering rack replacement though...

 

Agreed, you really don't need to unplug any of them. I replaced mine a few weeks ago and didn't have to. Of course if they damaged both front wheel speed sensor wires that could cause an issue.

 

Right!?!?
I've replaced the steering rack before and all I did was disconnect the battery, had no issues.

 

No horn I just went and checked. Clock spring????

 

Most likely.
Take the truck back to the place that “fixed it”.

 

I have some deutsch connector pins that look about the same size as Toyota's tool.

 

Have at it. But I think you are wasting your time. You’d be better off asking the correct questions when you take the truck back.

Ask them “When you replace a steering rack. Do you need to secure the steering wheel from turning inside the truck.”

Don’t ask if they “did”, ask if you “need too.”
Let them tell on their self.