Help - Royal Steering Wheels swap, now airbag light on!!

D

d3matt

Member
 Oxfordshire, UK
Today I went up to Aylesbury and met Jack who swapped my steering wheel over, following the retrim. However, while I told him that the battery will need disconnecting first, he didn't and said "I can do it without disconnecting that". Now the airbag light is on.
I have just got the Carly Pro app and luckily had the cable in the car. So I we tried wiping the error code, but it just kept coming back. So he then told me to go to Auto Torque to let them use their equipment to wipe the code, but no joy either. In fact their kit couldn't even find an error code.
So I'm now back home with a newly trimmed wheel, which is very nice and worth the £150, but left with the airbag light. I know its been discussed on here before. What the solution?

Also all three of the silver spoke covers also broke and none have screws in them now. Did I read before that you can no longer buy these new?
Now wish I didn't pay the £15 extra for fitting! :evil:
 
That's terrible and it's such an easy thing to do yourself as you say the battery should have been disconnected and left for at least 15 minutes I would make sure the Royals foot the bill :thumbsdown:
 
That doesn't sound good - I too followed best practice and disconnected the airbag before removing, surprised Jack didn't. Hope someone can give you an answer :(
 
Matt, you would think he'd have used common sense! Perhaps he should stick to what he's good at - Trimming them, and not fitting them!

Anyway, airbag lights are a PITA - I had one from when I replaced the window cable in my NS door, NOTHING would turn it off, Carly read it and said it was cleared, but nope. In the end I used the BCables suite on my Toughbook, turned it right off and it's not been back, think I used diagnostics from inside TIS.

Mike
 
Strange one this. What was he thinking not disconnecting the battery, even if it didn't cause a light its bloody dangerous! Its very disappointing and a shame as he has such a great rep on here and other forums. I'm one of his previous customers and rate his work, well at least the re trimming wheels bit, very highly. Contact him and see what he has to say about this, a bit of an acid test for him on here really, be interesting to see how he reacts when things go wrong like this and if he covers your costs.

As for the actual fault. Again its a bit strange no fault code was found, especially considering the garage concerned offer BMW servicing/repairs. You would have thought they would have decent enough equipment to find the issue. I would go back to basics on this. It could be something as simple as he forgot to plug the airbag connectors in to the new wheel etc. Disconnect your battery, leave it 10-15 mins (to be on the safe side) and pop the airbag off. Its dead easy if you haven't done it before, although there is a bit of a knack to it so its best to watch one of the zillions of you tube vids first. Check everything is plugged in right and reconnect the battery. Chances are even if you did find a wire disconnected etc the light wont go off but any decent scanner should then pick up the fault code so it can be cleared.

Moving on to your broken trims, its very common for them to break and even if they are still available thy are silly money from the dealers. Mine were very similar to this and all I did was superglue them on and cable tie them to set for 12-24 hours (whatever time the glue needed) Its easier to do off the car and less chance of getting any glue on your new leather although you dont need much at all to hold things in place. Again if you havent done it before the wheel itself is one 16mm bolt, dead easy to remove, easier than the airbag itself.

I should add 18 months down the line my trims are still fine, no issues at all

Hope this helps
 
Jack is a good lad and his trimming work is excellent. I'm sure this was nothing malicious but do think no adhering to the disconnection advise unwise, if only from the perspective of personal safety.
That being said you have paid for a service to be provided and it hasn't been without error (the fitting). You may have an issue with proof but I suggest you give him an opportunity to suggest a resolution, I.e ask him to fix the error, or find someone who will. Failing that go to BMW, get them to resolve (assuming its not a coincidental failure) and send him the bill.
If you're local to NW London I'm happy to give it a go with INPA.
 
I've left my battery disconnected last night. So when I get home from work this evening, there may be a little glimmer of hope that the airbag light will be off.
 
I'm thinking about getting my wheel re-trimmed, will be very interested to know how this is resolved.
Good luck.
 
d3matt said:
I've left my battery disconnected last night. So when I get home from work this evening, there may be a little glimmer of hope that the airbag light will be off.
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Can pretty much guarantee that it won't have cleared it. They are pretty resilient for obvious reasons.

Mike
 
He disconnected my battery when he fitted mine for me a year or so ago....I wonder why he's now doing it differently.

My airbag light came on when I swapped out me seats, I managed to reset it using Carly. I had to clear it a couple of times, but it did eventually clear.
 
LordOxygen said:
I'm thinking about getting my wheel re-trimmed, will be very interested to know how this is resolved.
Good luck.
Click to expand...

X2.
I was planning on using them in the near future as I've heard and seen good things so hope this is resolved for you.

I've always left my battery disconnected for at least half an hour before removing steering wheels, never had an airbag light come on.
 
So I left the battery disconnected for 24 hours and light is still on.

Previously I had used Carly Pro to clear the error and it kept coming back. Repeated this 3 or 4 times when there with Jack. No luck.

Tonight I got my laptop out and tried INPA. I think I'm using the program correctly.
It found the error code....
INPA1.jpg
I then cleared it...
INPA2.jpg

But it immediately comes back each time.

So what now? Anyone any ideas what to do next?
This whole thing is extremely frustrating.
 
There are 2 garages near me, one an indy BMW specialist, who could clear it for you, would probably charge you about a half hour labour. Or just go to BMW.
 
Ducklakeview said:
Go into tis and use the diagnostics from in there. That's the only way I could clear mine.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I'll give that a go in the morning. I really hope it works.
I struggle with all this BMW software. Its not the easiest stuff to use.
 
d3matt said:
Ducklakeview said:
Go into tis and use the diagnostics from in there. That's the only way I could clear mine.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I'll give that a go in the morning. I really hope it works.
I struggle with all this BMW software. Its not the easiest stuff to use.
Click to expand...

Totally agree is not too user friendly. The later BMW software ISTA P/D is easier to use. Before trying again I would disconnect the battery, whip the airbag off and double check all the plugs are properly connected. Could be something as simple as a plug not seated correctly that's causing all the grief.
 
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