Broken airbag clock spring — diagnosis and replacement

Someday, when I was parking the car car I noticed that backlight on steering wheel buttons doesn’t work in one position. 😕

(I’m sorry for noise, but I was in a jacket)

In VCP I didn’t have airbag error, but had this:

1751(0x06D7):2E Right mutifunc. buttons on steerg. wheel — Detect Lamp OFF intermitted

My 6R0959654 was bought as used, for a long time because of the old BCM I didn’t have backlight on the steering wheel, moreover, I rarely turn the steering wheel firmly at night, so probably the problem could have appeared earlier, and I didn’t even notice it.

I bet that the problem may be either the MFSW/airbag tape (ring) or cold joint on buttons. It happened only on one position, when I turned left.
For test I put only wirings from other airbag, and it’s was the same so I recognized my ring is broken. I bought it as used part, about 2015.

Schemes (6R0959654)

1 — airbag
2 — aribag
3 — +15
4 — lin
5 — horn (optional)
6 — GND

I did a little test and in fact, one wire on the tape was damaged:

Observation

in yellow airbag connector it’s brown wire:

I pulled out the test ring and then completely dismantled it. The reassembly of airway tape is quite complicated. Happily, I will not need to use it, so I gave up tedious tape laying.

damaged part of the insulation on the airbag tape

The new ring with the steering angle sensor is quite expensive in Poland, so I decided to buy another one used again. Immediately after the purchase, I put it in the car and tested it by turning the steering wheel to the stop.

in the picture, it can be seen that the seller, despite the use of the transport element that prevents the tape from moving, had the tape arranged incorrectly.

Fortunately, I knew it well, because I removed the steering wheel many times before, during other modifications. I also mentioned the correct arrangement of the airbag tape in my guide on the installation of Climatronic in Polo 6R