Hey guys, ChrisFix here and today i'm going to show you how to replace a clock spring
in your car or truck!
And were going to be working on this 2007 Toyota Prius, but don't worry, replacing a
clock spring in most makes and models is the same process or at least very similar so after
you're done watching this video,you'll know exactly how to replace a clock spring in your
vehicle.
And so you know this job shouldn't take you more than an hour, MAX, even for beginners,
and its completely worth it to do this yourself, I contacted the local Toyota dealership, asked
them for a quote to see how much it would cost to replace a clock spring, and they quoted
me $650, parts and labor, to replace the clock spring.
Now if you were to buy this part yourself, and aftermarket part just like this one, was
$20, and if you wanted to get an OEM part like this, this is around $220.
So either way, you're saving a ton of money.
So let me show you where the clock spring is located, and what it does!
So the clock spring is located behind the steering wheel right back here, so in order
to get it out, we have to remove the airbag and we have to remove the steering wheel,
but don't worry, its not difficult to do.
So what does a clock spring do?
Well this is actually pretty important, what a clock spring does, is it connects all the
electronics on the steering wheel, the airbag, the horn, all the buttons here, and it allows
you to spin the steering wheel, and maintain that electrical connection, so no matter where
the steering wheel is, the horn, airbag, all that stuff is going to work, if you had regular
wires in there, they would just twist up and break off.
So how can you tell if you clock spring is bad?
Well it's actually really simple to figure out and diagnose!
Basically anything the clock spring connects to you want to test out.
For example, the horn, you can see the horn doesn't work here, you could test all the
buttons on the steering wheel, and the last thing to check, is on the dash, you want to
look for an airbag light, and you can see there is an airbag light on.
So because our horn isn't working, the buttons aren't working, and we have that airbag light
on, i'm very confident our clock spring is bad.
Now you might have one, or even all these symptoms so you have to try to figure it out.
Another thing is, when this car is driven, sometimes, when you turn the steering wheel,
the connection in the clock spring gets connected, and the airbag light shuts off, the horn starts
working, Oh, there we go!
The horn starts working, you can see like that.
So as the wheel turns, the connection in there is just making enough contact so it starts
to work.
Obviously, we don't want an intermittent connection, we want to have a connection that works all
the time!
So we have to replace that clock spring.
Since our airbag light is on, and this car is newer then 1995, that allows to use a OBDII
scanner like this, so we can scan the computer and see if that airbag light is telling us
the clock spring is no good.
And most of the time, the OBDII port where we need to plug this in, is going to be underneath
the dash on the drivers side.
So if we take a look underneath the dash, right there you could see where the OBDII
port is, so were going to go and plug this in.
Now we need to get the car into the run position, so if your car uses a key to start, put the
key in the ignition, and turn it all the way, right before the car starts, to that last
click, that's the run position.
Don't start the car.IF your car has a push button start like this, take your foot off
the brake, and sometimes you need to press this once, and sometimes you need to press
it twice.
And once you see your dash lights come on, now your car in in the run position.
Now we could grab our phone, and click on the app, and we are going to go to "read codes",
and we want to read the "SRS", the airbag light, so we want to click on read common
dash codes, so click that right there, and let it do its thing let it scan the computer
and check for all the codes.
Alright so its showing 2 airbag codes, "B1801" and "B1811", both are saying squib circuit
is open, and what a squib circuit is, is that clock spring airbag circuit in here, so its
letting us know its open, its not connected, there's a break in it.
So if we click on this to check the code, again squib circuit is open, it is a common
code, so this is actually a common problem on these priuses, and its telling us the most
frequently reported fix is to replace the clock spring assembly.
So, that's what were going to do, its amazing what technology could do to help you diagnose
a car.
We knew pretty much that the clock spring was bad.
The horn wasn't working, the airbag light was on, the buttons weren't working, it makes
sense, and we just verified it with the OBDII scanner, now that we know we need to replace
our clock spring for sure, you know how to diagnose it, lets go and replace it!
And here are all the tools you'll need to get the job done, were using common hand tools
so you could follow along at home and get this done yourself, so we have a ratchet,
some sockets, a T27 Torx bit, sometimes you have Torx bits to get the airbag out, sometimes
its just a regular socket, we have an extension, we have a wrench, we have a Flathead and phillips
head screwdriver, we have a marker, some black tape, and a torque wrench, now some steering
wheels don't come off easily you might need a puller set like this, so don't worry you
can rent one of these for free at your local parts store.
this is very inexpensive to buy, and then you can keep it.
I'll link all of these tools in the description so you could easily find them, anything here,
that you see, that you're like "Oh i need one of those", right down in the description
so you don't have to worry about it.
And finally, the last decision you have to make, is wether or not you want to go OEM
or aftermarket on your clockspring.
That decision is up to you!
I am using an aftermarket one because this was $20 versus $220, and, the OEM is known
to go bad on the Prius, so why spend all that money for something that's just going to go
bad again?
If it does go bad you don't have to worry, it will let you know, the airbag light will
come on, or your horn wont work, so you'll know this is no good.
And it's so easy to replace, its not worth spending all that extra money in this case.
If you have a nice car, or you that, it's not common for it to go bad, then it's probably
worth it to go OEM but in this case, aftermarket is fine.
Now the next thing to do, after we get all our tools, and our parts, we want to make
sure that we park the car straight, you want to make sure that your steering wheel and
your wheels are straight.
So the wheels are good, now lets go in the car, good, and our steering wheel is straight,
and that's important because our clock spring is going to go in, one direction.
If it's off to the side, it won't go in properly, you could also break the clock spring if it's
not straight.
So having everything straight now is going to make our lives a lot easier after we remove
the steering wheel.
So with the wheel straight, now we could go and remove the negative cable from the battery.
Now in most cars, the battery is located under the hood, but in this car, the battery is
located in the trunk.
So let's pop the trunk, and the battery is located in the passenger side, so lets remove
the carpet, lift up the floor that covers this bin, then we have to lift the bin out
so we can remove this cover that covers the battery.
Now we have access to our battery, and we can unscrew it and then we could disconnect
that negative cable from the post. and make sure you push it off to the side so it doesn't
touch the post at all.
And with the battery completely disconnected, now we want to wait about 10-15 minutes for
the capacitors in the car to completely discharge, that way there is no power going to the airbags
at all.
And that makes it completely safe to work on.
Okay so 15 minutes later our airbag is safe to remove and in order to remove it, there
is a screw on this side, and a screw on that side holding it in so lets move around to
the side of the steering wheel.
You can see this trim piece right here and it looks like we have a little bit of damage
from someone trying to take this off in the past so I wonder if the clock spring was already
replaced.
So now is actually a good time to bring up a quick tip, your going to be using something
like a flat head screwdriver to remove this plastic trim, and so you don't damage it,
like this person did, what you could do, is get a little bit of electrical tape, and you
could cover the tip of your screwdriver, so its less likely to cause damage.
Now we get in here, and pop this out like so.
And that gives us access to our Torx bolt right in there there.
So lets break this bolt loose, good!
And many times these bolts don't come out all of the way.
You can see it's held in by a little plastic piece to prevent the bolt from coming out.
Good, so with the bolt unscrewed all the way, now we could go to the other side of the steering
wheel, and do the same thing.
Carefully pop the plastic trim out, unscrew the Torx bolt, and now the airbag is free
to removed, and make sure you do this carefully, because it's still connected to some wires.
Now to remove the airbag wires, get a small flathead screwdriver under the plastic tab
on top of the connector, and pry it upwards.
Do the same for the other connector.
And now we could pop both of the connectors out of the airbag.
Then we could set that aside, and remove the ground cable.
So with the airbag removed, a safety tip when working with airbags, always place the airbags
somewhere facing up!
Never face it down, if you face it down and it goes off, for whatever reason, it going
to shoot out, but if you face it up, and it goes off, the airbag will just explode, and
you'll be fine, but we don't have to worry about it, the airbags not going off, it's
disconnected, you'll be fine!
So next what we want to do is remove the wires that connect to the different buttons on the
steering wheel.
So just press down on that top clip of the plastic connector and pull it outwards, and
make sure you pull for the plastic clip, and not from the wires themselves, which could
damage it.
Good, so were going to keep the yellow airbag wire attached, and just move the steering
wheel button wires out of the way, and now we want to remove our bolt.
That's what holds the steering wheel in.
But before we remove it, grab a marker and we want to mark this so we know exactly how
it goes in.
So use the paint marker to mark the center steering shaft, the nut, and the steering
wheel all in one line, just like that.
And the steering whee; and nut and the shaft here all being marked all in line is going
to help us out a lot when we remove the steering wheel and then we have to go put it back on,
because you could put it back on a little crooked and that could cause damage to the
new clock spring, and also your steering wheel wont be straight.
So with our steering wheel marked, now we could get our 19mm socket and get it on there.
And the first thing you'll notice is this steering wheel will turn as you try to loosen
this nut, so that's not going to work.
So straighten out this steering wheel, and then jam your legs up against the bottom of
the steering wheel, so the steering wheel doesn't spin.
And you could use your other hand to help give you even more leverage so it doesn't
spin.
There we go!
Alright, and now we could remove this nut the rest of the way.
Alright so lets get that nut completely off, and beautiful so there we go now that the
nut is removed, we could remove the steering wheel.
So just wiggle the steering wheel back and forth as you're pulling just like this, beautiful,
and then it should come loose and then carefully remove it so you are not pulling out any wires.
Now not every steering wheel comes out so easily, some of them, you need to use a puller
set like this, and don't worry, it's very simple, i'm going to show you how to use this
in my mustang where you need a puller set to get that steering wheel off.
Alright so the first thing you do is make sure you screw in the bolt or nut that holds
in the steering wheel, but just screw it in a little bit.
This will prevent the puller from damaging the threads on the steering shaft.
Next you want to find the right size bolts that fit in the threads of the steering wheel
holes, and it looks like these black ones thread in there perfectly.
And i'm going to screw these bolts into these threaded holes on the steering wheel, which
is designed specifically for a puller.
Now your puller comes with a bunch of different attachments, in this case i'm going to be
using this attachment, which will fit nicely over out bolt.
Now we can grab our two bolts, tighten them down by hand, so we don't cross thread them.
Now we could start tightening this down, which should pull the steering wheel, right off.
And with that pop, this steering wheel is now loose, and we could remove the puller.
Also, don't forget about that Torx bolt.
And then now our steering wheel will come right out.
Perfect!
And now we have access to our clock spring.
Which is this right here.
And I thought that was important to show you guys, its very simple to use a kit like this,
and you could rent one of these for free from your local parts store.
Or you can pick one up, they are very inexpensive, and it's good to have!
Not every steering wheel is going to come right off, this steering wheel came off pretty
easily, but some, like on my mustang, you definitely need a puller set like this, ill
be sure to link this in the description so you could easily find it.
Alright so now you could actually see the clock spring.
In order to get to the clock spring to remove it, you need to remove this screw, and this
screw, and then there is one last screw under here.
So lets use a Phillips head screwdriver to remove the left screw, and to remove the right
screw, Good!
And finally, the bottom screw under the steering column, right here.
Now we can pry apart the plastic trim around the steering column like that, and there are
3 different wiring harnesses that need to disconnected from the side of the clock spring
before we remove it, so lets get those off.
Good!
So with all our wires disconnected, now we could remove our clock spring!
And if we take a look at that new clock spring, there are 3 clips, there is one at the top,
one here, and one here that we need to press, so that could remove this.
So we could pop that top clip out, and this simply un-clips like that, and then we could
pop the bottom two clips out, and now this, will come sliding right out like that!
So out with the old, and in with the new!
And I always like to compare old parts to new parts to make sure they are identical,
and these look the same, the only difference is the old part has an angle sensor on here,
not all clock springs have angle sensors, but Toyota, Lexus, and some other brands have
an angle sensor that we need to take off the old clock spring, and transfer to new clock
spring.
So the angle senor is this black piece right back here, and its held in by some plastic
clips on the side, so get a small flat head screwdriver, and just pry on the clip so that
you could pop this out just like that.
Beautiful! and this all an angle senor is, its very simple, it just lets the car know
which direction the steering wheel is turned, so if the ABS activates or the traction control
activates, the cars computer knows how to use those systems and regain control of your
car.
Now you just take your new clock spring, and it just fits right in.
It will literally just snap in to place, just like so.
Perfect!
With the new clock spring all set up, lets slide it down the steering shaft, and you
press in the two clips at the bottom, and then the one clip at the top, and then that
is in!
Now you might have noticed this orange tab down here, were going to have to remove that,
but don't remove it yet, it prevents this clock spring from spinning, so as we install
all the wires and gt the steering wheel ready, we want to make sure that the clock spring
doesn't spin, we want to make sure it stays exactly in this position.
So don't remove that, lets get these wires installed on the bottom of the clock spring.
And for these wires, its important that you hear a solid click, especially for the yellow
airbag wire.
That click means this isn't going to vibrate loose as you drive it, it's stuck in there.
Good!
Now you can snap together the plastic trim pieces, and screw in the two screws that hold
this in place.
And don't forget that last bottom screw!
Alright, so with everything screwed in, all connected, we have our steering wheel ready
to get installed, but first, we need to remove this plastic piece.
And this plastic piece just snaps off.
Now real quick, lets just say, for whatever reason, by mistake, your clock spring turns,
and you don't remember how many turns it is, and you want to get it back to center, so
you don't ruin it when you put the steering wheel on.
Well, on some clock springs, there's numbers on here, you can see right there it says 5
turns that means 2 1/2 turns is dead center so you could easily find dead center.
Another thing, see that little glass window right there?
See how its black?
Keep and eye on it.
When it's orange, that means it's dead center.
So those two things will prevent you from putting this off center and ruining it, just
in case when you pull that tab, this gets spun around for whatever reason.
So now you know how to center it.
Now don't turn the clock spring, get your steering wheel, feed these wires through,
just like that, make sire your clock spring is centered, beautiful, so our dots right
here are lined up so we know our steering wheel is straight on that shaft, exactly how
we removed it, our clock spring is lined up in the middle, our airbag cable is out through
here so we can connect it to the airbag, everything looks good, so now we can install the nut
which holds this steering wheel in.
Now there's 2 very important things you need to do when you're tightening down your steering
wheel nut or bolt, the first very important thing, is using medium strength thread locker.
You want to get this medium strength thread locker on the threads.
This will prevent vibrations from loosening up this nut.
This nut holds the steering wheel on, so it would be very bad if it came loose as you
were driving, so definitely use thread locker!
Good, so with that hand tightened down with that thread locker on there, the second most
important thing to do is to use a torque wrench and torque this nut down to the proper spec.
And you guys are always asking me where I get my torque specs.
And the answer to that is I use service manuals like this in here, it give you the torque
specs for whatever you are working on!
For all the cars that I own, I like to keep a hard copy, and for this car, I have an online
copy.
So lets go to the specifications page, scroll down to the steering section, good, right
here, and now check it out, it says steering wheel nut, 37 ft-Ibs.
So making sure you guys have the correct torque specifications is super important that why
I always tell you guys to torque stuff down, it's important to use thread locker, especially
for something that holds your steering wheel in.
And now you know exactly where I get my torque specs.
So lets get the torque wrench on this nut, and lets torque this down to 37 ft-Ibs.
Good!
Next we could connect the buttons on the steering wheel, right here, goes right into the clock
spring up there, just like that, and finally, the last thing to do is connect the airbag
so get the ground wire on first, and give it a little tug to make sure it is on there
and it wont come off.
Then we could grab our yellow airbag wires and push the plastic connector all the way
down and then push in that yellow snap on the top.
And with that connected, we could put our airbag back into the steering wheel.
And with the airbag in place, the last thing we need to do is to tighten down the 2 Torx
screws that hold it in to 78 in-Ibs.
So tighten this one down to 78 in-Ibs.
Good! then we could get that plastic trim back on, and it just clicks into place.
And now on the other side, do the same exact thing, torque it down to 78 in-Ibs.
And then pop that plastic trim in.
Good!
All right, the airbag is in, the last thing we need to do is reconnect the battery!
So make sure you push that negative cable all the way down onto the terminal, and snug
it up so it doesn't move.Then get that battery cover trim in place, like that, lower the
privacy bin cover, and put the floor mat back in, All right moment of truth, lets try this
out, see if it works!
So keep an eye on that airbag light.
Every time a car turns on, the airbag system does a test to make sure that it is all good.
So if we fix this, the light will go off.
Beautiful!
We don't have any lights on the dash, and we fixed our clock spring, now you would want
to go for a ride, make sure everything works as at should, all the buttons, the horn, and
make sure that airbag light doesn't come back on.
But there you go!
That is how you replace a clock spring in your car or truck and save yourself a ton
of money, we saved over $600 doing this ourselves in less than an hour.
So hopefully the video was helpful, if it was remember to give a thumbs up!
Also if you're not a subscriber, consider hitting that subscribe button for more videos
just like this and as always, all the tools and products I use are linked in the description.