Otto M@n
Red Skull Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2022
- Member Number
- 4654
- Messages
- 18
I bought a '09 Mazda 3 back in early 2020 for a DD. 118k miles. I bought it off the original owner, and while it wasn't mint, it's a clean car. The car lived in DC, so expected little dings/dents. Very clean underside, minimal rust and the interior is really clean as well. Having done some maintenance work on it over the years, it's obvious the headlights were out at some point, indicating possible crash or something, but nothing official on the VIN.
Anyways, when I bought it, it had an intermittent SRS airbag light. The passenger airbag light works/functions as normal so I am confident its not that. Using FORScan with my code reader, it said it was the drivers side airbag connection, which 99.5% of the time indicates a broken clock spring. The steering wheel controls, cruise control and audio stuff always worked just fine. Anyways, I tried changing the clock spring once and it worked for a little bit, but not really. Eventually I broke down and bought another one and felt better about that one as it was zip tied so it couldn't spin. That gave me a seed of doubt of the first one I bought (was it bought, broken and then returned?) The second clock spring worked great for over a year, and just recently it came back on...and then went away.
There is no rhyme or reason to what would make it turn on. Sometimes I'd be just sitting at a red light and it would turn on. Sometimes it would turn on right away when I got in the car the first time in the morning. Internet said it could be the seat connectors or whatever, but the FORScan code keeps going back to the airbag connection. Not to mention I haven't moved my seat in years, so I find that hard to believe.
Am I just dealing with shitty post COVID quality control parts or what?
Anyways, when I bought it, it had an intermittent SRS airbag light. The passenger airbag light works/functions as normal so I am confident its not that. Using FORScan with my code reader, it said it was the drivers side airbag connection, which 99.5% of the time indicates a broken clock spring. The steering wheel controls, cruise control and audio stuff always worked just fine. Anyways, I tried changing the clock spring once and it worked for a little bit, but not really. Eventually I broke down and bought another one and felt better about that one as it was zip tied so it couldn't spin. That gave me a seed of doubt of the first one I bought (was it bought, broken and then returned?) The second clock spring worked great for over a year, and just recently it came back on...and then went away.
There is no rhyme or reason to what would make it turn on. Sometimes I'd be just sitting at a red light and it would turn on. Sometimes it would turn on right away when I got in the car the first time in the morning. Internet said it could be the seat connectors or whatever, but the FORScan code keeps going back to the airbag connection. Not to mention I haven't moved my seat in years, so I find that hard to believe.
Am I just dealing with shitty post COVID quality control parts or what?
