Our family has a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan with about 90,000 miles. A while back the air bag light kept coming on intermittently. I did some research on the internet and found out that it was a common problem for this vehicle and that it stemmed from a broken clock spring. I ordered a new clock spring and installed it this week. This involved pulling off the air bag and steering wheel.

When I pulled out the old clock spring it had some broken plastic parts on it---I'm surprised it was working at all. I've finished the repair, and the air bag light doesn't turn on anymore.

Now the ***new*** problem: When the van is stopped, and I turn the steering wheel either left or right, I get a loud whining and slight vibration. It didn't do this before the repair. I searched this forum and it appears that this is a design flaw, and common to this model. It even has a name: "The Steering Shudder Problem" (key in music of doom). It apparently has something to do with air in the power steering system. How in the world did I get air into the system by just removing the steering wheel? Or could this be a different problem?

One possibility: Before I pulled off the steering wheel, I had already disconnected the battery, and needed to straighten the wheels. I did this manually without the power on (wasn't very far, less than 5 degrees). Could this have damaged something?