jez

Sorry about the delay, I was distracted by life. .....CONTINUED.... I will try and remember what I did next as I am writing this several weeks later and have a sieve for a memory. Apologies if I have left something out .... If you are going to be using the same clock spring rather than buying a new one then it is a good idea to put some sticky tape on it so that it does not spin around while you are removing and handling it. Inside the clockspring there is a long ribbon cable like the ones you see in computers. Whwn you are driving and you turn your steering wheel this ribbon cable winds up and unwinds inside the black plastic housing much like a "Clock Spring" does . If you have set your car wheels pointing straight forward then the cable will be half wound up, keep it like this for reassembly. If you are buying a new clock spring then it doesn't matter if your old one moves. The new one will already be set in this wheels straight position at the factory. There will be a small clip on the new clockspring that stops it from turning until you are ready to fit it.. You have to remove this clip before you fit the new clockspring. The steering column cover is in two parts. When you have removed the Philips screw (hidden behind the steering height adjustment lever) from the lower half of the cover it can be separated from the top half of the cover. The two halves are clipped together. The upper cover has two large screws facing you when you are sitting in the drivers seat. Remove those screws. Then the cover should lift off. The clock spring is clipped into position. This was a bit fiddly to remove but I got there in the end. BUYING THE NEW CLOCKSPRING !!!! READ THIS BIT.... My local Nissan garage wanted £165 plus VAT just for the part...nearly £200 quid for a coiled up ribbon cable in a plastic cover! I phoned a few breakers yards and was quoted between £40 and £65 for a second hand part. Then I phoned a Suzuki dealer and asked them for the price of one for the Suzuki Alto (an identical part)...It came to £42 which included the VAT!! Yes, Suzuki you rock! Nissan, hang your heads in shame. You rip us off by fitting a dodgy part and them milk it when we have to replace the crap part you supplied in the first place. I had to take a registration number from a car in their showroom for them to locate the part. I checked the picture of it on the computer against the one I had removed. All looked good and all was good. Remember the new on will have an anti spin clip on it so that will look slightly different. I will always check Suzuki parts from now on. Re fitting it all was just the reverse of the removal. One interesting point. When it all went back together the horn worked at last but the airbag light still stayed on. I was expecting that and I was told that this has to be reset using the fault reset codes with a computer. I figured I would leave it on until I got near a friendly mechanic or AA man with a computer. It is a 5 minute job to plug in and reset. However a few weeks and about 500 miles later I noticed that the airbag warning light has gone out by itself. Read Turnbulla's posts on this thread above. I hope this is a help to someone. I wish there was a detailed description on the internet for every job I need to do and an easy way of finding that description. If you have trouble finding it then you can be sure others will have had trouble too. So next time you do a job with no clear instructions please make a note of what you did and upload it for others.

Need to go and check something.

For those of you who might be about to attempt to remove the steering wheel and/ or air bag and/ or clock spring on a Pixo or a Suzuki Alto. This is what you need to do. First disconnect the battery negative terminal using 10mm spanner. Then you have to wait for ten minutes to allow any residual electricity to drain from capacitors. If you don't do this you risk detonating the air bag! On each side at the back of your steering wheel there is a hole just big enough to get a screwdriver through. If you look in the hole with a torch you will see the top of a torx bolt (Torx bolt has a six pointed star like recess in it). Undo both of these bolts. You will need a torx screwdriver for this. These bolts are at an angle slightly pointing back towards the car driver. The bolts are retained, they do not come right out so just keep undoing them as far as they will go. Once you have undone them the middle section of your steering wheel holding the drivers air bag can lift off. There are still wires connected to the airbag and horn. Unclip and disconnect these wires. The horn wire can be disconnected at either end. I disconnected it from the big plug rather than the spade connector. The air bag wires disconnect in the centre of the air bag with a strange looking locked plug. You need a small electrical screwdriver to prise up the yellow locking clip (a small square shape) on top of this plug. Once that lock is popped up the plug can be pulled out. When the airbag has been removed from the steering wheel you can see the 17mm nut holds the steering wheel in place on the splined steering column. Centre the steering wheel so your car wheels are pointing forward and the steering wheel is not turned left or right. When you are reassembling the steering wheel you want to push it back on to the splines in the same place that it is now so before you remove it mark its position with a thin marker pen to draw a line across the centre of the splined column and continue the line onto the steering wheel metal frame. Now undo the 17mm nut in the centre using a socket spanner and an extension bar. I had a friend hold the steering wheel for me to stop it from turning while I undid the nut. You could try using your knees or turning the wheel until it is on the steering lock but I don't think steering locks are very strong so if you do use the steering lock to hold the wheel still try and hold it with your knees as well to reduce the force on the lock. Once the nut has been removed you can pull the steering wheel off. I managed to do this quite easily with a little jerking pulls. I left the 17mm nut on a couple of turns so that when I tugged the wheel off it did not fly off and smack me in the face. If you are having problems pulling the wheel off the splines then (I read on another site) you can get a special steering wheel removal tool. that will pull it off. OK, next step ... The plastic steering column cowling has to come off before you can remove the clock spring. It is not so hard once you have found the Phillips screw. It is hidden under the little lever on the underside of the column that adjusts the steering wheel height. Near your knees when you are driving. .... Be right back......

An after thought.....Judging by the amount of views this topic has had it must be a regular fault with this car. Looks like Nissan could be fitting a faulty clock spring and perhaps should be doing a recall. Or maybe they prefer customers coming in and spending lots of money on repairs.

Hi, Turnbulla, does your last message mean that your airbag warning light fault returned after you thought you had fixed it? I have just bought a Pixo and was told by the seller that the airbag warning light was on but had been checked during service and they were told the airbag was fine although there is a fault with the warning light and not to worry about it. However I found that the horn does not work so I suspect the clock spring is faulty. This car passed an MOT like this just before I bought it so maybe a dodgy MOT test or perhaps they fixed an intermittent fault that has returned. I am trying to contact the last owner to see what they say. As far as I know an airbag warning light is an MOT fail and no horn is defiantly a fail. So I need to fix mine but not sure if I understood your fix instructions or if I am capable of it.

Hi, I have joined this club today as I have just bought a Nissan Pixo. To be honest I know nothing about this car and only bought it as I wanted a small economic car for London driving. I bought it blind from eBay and I have been looking for another one while I have been driving around but I am beginning to think I am the only person in NW London who has one. OK I know it is not a dream car but is it really so bad that I am the only owner of a Pixo? Seems to be a nice enough drive for a cheap car.