Hi all,

Recently i've had the airbag light come on. Usually not straight away but after a few miles.
As my car went for its service last week, they looked at it and diagnosed a "rotary switch" fault and quoted almost £300 for repair, the part costing £132 + VAT!
I just wanted to check if anyone had the same problem with their XK and if the price seem ok.

Many thanks in advance,

Lars

 

As with any diagnosis I would tell them if this does not fix the problem I'll not pay and see what their response is. Where is the rotary switch located and what is it's function. Is there a code that led them to this switch.

 

Clock spring is US definition and yes I have a similar air bag fault as well as the radio turns itself up a little if I wiggle the wheel at a certain position. If memory serves the air bag fault was resistance across the air bag was not within spec which means it may not fire in an accident.

 

Thanks all.
I believe they found a fault code but not 100% sure...
@Ranchero50: did you get it fixed in the end?

Thanks

 

No, I have not yet. If memory serves there are several tiers of fault and the current one just says the resistance is not optimal, not that the connection is broken or shorted to ground. I feel confident it'll work if needed although in my 47 years I haven't needed one yet.

replacement process is pretty straight forward, have the front wheels pointed straight ahead. Unhook battery remove airbag remove wheel, remove clock spring.

 

Let me get this straight. You have a known issue with your passenger airbag, that according to you, is relatively straight forward to fix but you have not fixed it yet. ! Talk about opening yourself up for a lawsuit if, god forbid, you are ever involved in an accident with a passenger in the car and the air bag does not fire.

 

Think it was his driver's airbag, so he only gets sued by himself.

 

Thats ok then.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it'll work if needed. It's not serious enough that it comes up on the warning display like the failed TPMS system does.