I have a 2001 Ram 2500 quad cab 4x4 that I recently purchased with the airbag light on. I decided to get it with the light on based on a friend's advice at work in that it's a simple fix with the clockspring (friend's advice...not always the best practice!). I went ahead and replaced the clockspring, and it seemed to be a straight forward replacement. I made absolutely sure the steering shaft didn't move while removing the steering wheel (and marked both prior to removal). After getting the new clockspring installed, I started up the truck and the airbag light is still on. While replacing the clockspring, I looked at the condition of the wires around the steering gear, and they appear to be intact with none broken and/or coming out. The horn works, and both normal and hi beam lights work as well.

To add injury to insult, the red brake light is now on as well, although I think it's unrelated to the airbag light issue. It may have come on when I had the e-brake pressed the released. I am wondering if the e-brake is dragging - the truck feels hesitant to move forward and reverse when putting it in gear in the driveway (and I have to give it a little gas to get it moving).

My brother in law has an airbag scanner, and may be able to bring it over. Other than that, any advice on next steps?

 

Read codes, see what it has to say. Until you know what it is whining about, simply replacing parts is a waste of money.

 

Sounds silly, but have you disconnected the battery for 15 min and then checked to see if it came back on?

 

Thanks for the replies - understand about definitely reading the codes.

I did have the battery disconnected for 2 days...unfortunately it didnt clear the airbag light.

 

For the brake light, lift up on the parking brake pedal. May just need adjusting.

You do realize that the steering wheel airbag isn't the only one.
I think it takes several key cycles for the light to go off. From the '01 manual:
if a fault does not recur for a number of ignition cycles, the ACM will automatically erase the stored DTC.


May be the airbag control module under the dash, that's what turns the light on. Codes will help pin it down. careful working with anything having to do with the airbags, they can hurt you.

 

Thanks for the help. Scratch the idea of brother in law scanning it...he is on a special project for a while.

Short of buying an airbag code scanner or taking it to a shop, is there a way to read the codes? Also, I'd like to see if there's a wiring or plug that may be buggy as well. I looked under the passenger seat - didn't see any wiring under it, and not sure if that's normal.

 

You could check with the local parts stores, and see if their readers will do SRS/ABS, but, don't hold your breath on that..... A fair few of them around here simply WON'T do it... something about liability.... that doesn't mean you can't borrow their scanner, and do it yourself though...... (which I have done....)

No other way to read codes.

Gotta be REAL careful playing with airbags, they can kill you dead in a heartbeat.

 

Update: Brother in law was able to come over, and it read this output:



It's definitely a possibility that I installed the clockspring wrong?

 

How long has the light been on? Wouldn't hurt to check the clockspring.

 

Well - I don't think the clockspring was installed quite right. Is there supposed to be this much gap in between the steering wheel and the shroud? You can see the new clockspring...it just "looks" like too much gap.