I am trying to prep my car for Sale. I now have a SRS light on and All my steering wheel controls are no longer working including the horn. I thought maybe it was a ground issue as my Battery terminals where heavily corroded. I cleaned the terminals and put some CRC battery corrosion prevention on it and I still have the same issues. I checked the fuses under the hood but I did not see any pertaining to the issue I have only saw the horn relay which was well seated in place. I am leaning toward the clock spring as everything on the steering wheel connect to it. These issue started when the brake lamp indicator came on, I inspected the taillight bulbs and the driver side left was not well seated, which I reseated. What else can I inspect before having to take it in to the stealership.

 

i would also vote that your clockspring is degraded. i would imagine it's not a common problem with our cars. i'm not sure how difficult it is to replace either. kind of odd how this all started when the brakelamp light came on.

did the brake lamp indicator reset when you reseated the tail light bulb?

have you cleaned the other engine grounds? checked all the fuses related to the horn/radio controls/airbag?

 

Actually the same thing just happened to me..... Except no brake light problem.... I just turned it on one day and the SRS light was on.... I then noticed my horn, volume controls and cruise controls don't work anymore....

I am curious to know if anyone knows the answer to this.

 

I checked all my Fuse in the hood, driver side dash, passenger side and all fuses light up on the test light except for two fuses. The two fuses that did not work where one on the driver side "Starter Signal" and on the passenger side "ABS motor check". I took the fuses out and they did not look broken. I switched out the passenger side bad fuse and it still did not light up on the test light. I believe some fuses will not test properly unless the component is in use like the Headlight fuses. Funny thing I notice is a blank spot that corresponds to daylight, it looked like it would not accept a fuse, does the 99 TL have daytime running lights?

The brake lamp indicator went away when I reseated the tail light bulb.

I am unsure what you mean by other engine ground where are those located?

I am going to take the car to a shop that can check for electrical short and possibly come up with an answer. Thanks for the help.

 

Can you let me know what they say if you take it in for it seems that we have the same problem...

 

well it sounds like your fuses aren't the problem, and no, the 99 TL doesn't have DRLs. that option was for the canadian models i believe so the fuse space is still there.

as far as the other grounds go i believe the only ones are the terminal end at the battery, the body of the car (just trace the battery cable to it), there should be one on the starter, and one on the transmission (not sure where), there should also be one on the alternator, but i personally haven't looked at it to see where it is.

i don't believe the ground system is your issue. something sounds shorted or degraded in the clockspring because that's the only component common to all three conditions you have. how this started when the brake lamp came on i'm not sure. unless your completely sure it all happened at once then that may have been a coincidence.

let us know when you come back from the shop. i am definitely curious to see if we are right.

 

I could not make it to the shop over the weekend and plan on going sometime this week. However I found a thread with a pdf explaining a possible solution for this problem posted by fsttyms1 https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...highlight=REEL. I tried following the instruction but stripped one of the screws holding the airbag in place by turning it the wrong way, I will try to follow it after I extract the screw.

 

I did what was suggested in the service bulletin above but still have the same issue. I think the main problem is the SRS light being lit up so once I find out why that is on I will know the answer to my problem. The volume control works sometimes but not for very long, nothing . I still believe I might be the REEL. The Acura shops around here are charging $90 for the diagnostic what a ripoff, they do this because they do not let any independent shop get the damn Honda PGM tester. Is there any other way to read the SRS code?

 

I finally got all the steering components to work again. Once I replaced the cable reel assembly everything began to work again. I opened up the old cable reel and it was actually broken in the beginning portion of the cable inside the assembly. I also got my SRS light of by reseting the SRS system via the MES connection behind the driver side fuse box. I am including some picture of what the inside of the cable reel looks like. Maybe Acura needs to do a recall on the Cable Reel Assembly because I would have thought this should have lasted.

First you open it by removing the white ring behind the assembly


Picture of the opened assembly


More pictures of the inside


Finally the broken portion of the reel

 

wow i will try that

 

My 1996 3.2 TL was having the same problem. The SRS light was on and the cruise control and horn stopped working. I followed your instructions and you were right on the money. I carefully opened the cable reel and after inspection, I saw that it was broken. I am not sure how much the new reel cost at the stealer, but I was too scared to find out. I went to the near by junkyard and got one from a 1996 2.5 TL. I disassembled the reel and inspected it for cracks prior to purchasing. It cost about $10, so I got a spare just incase...thx for saving me a ton load of money.

 

welcome to acurazine--glad a diy got you fixed for cheaper!!

note this is gen2 thread area- for direct help on your car ck out first gen

I dont know how much crosses over