Airbag warning light, slip ring replacement

Andy2402

Active Member
Oct 9, 2014
18
0
Hi all

Could anyone offer any advice from.experience or knowledge

The airbag warning light comes on and stays on when I turn my 2011 leon on. So I took it into the dealership this morning. They tell me it will cost £54.60 to diagnose the problem.

I get a call at 12, the technician needs more time to find the issue (his kit is telling him to take the steering wheel off) this will take him another hour so they are ringing to tell me I will incur another £54.60. So I say continue

I've just had a call , the technician has found the issue which is the slip ring needs replacing at a cost of £300, £220 for the part and another hours fitting labour at £80.

So that's

2x £54.60
£220
£80

I whinged a bit and they said they'd not charged one of the £54.60 as he didn't use the full hour.

Now I've googled/you tubed the slip ring replacement and it seems to me it should not have taken more than 1 hour to find the issue and it certainly wouldn't take another full hour to replace the slip ring. Also I'm not sure if 220 is the right price for a new part , genuine or not. I found a YouTube video of a guy replacing the slip ring on his car (different brand)

I feel like I'm being ripped off but it may be my ignorance. Could anyone confirm or rebuff the above?

Andy
 

boggle

Active Member
Dec 28, 2012
117
3
KENT
With vcds this should not have taken more than 10 minutes to diagnose.
Dealerships are pretty useless for anything other than a service. They always want to sell you something...
220 for a new genuine slip ring sounds right but a used one can be had for 20
Fitting is a 10-15 minute job but you will get charged for the full hour,

Your not being ripped off but are paying top doller at a dealers for something you might not be able to do yourself.
 
Last edited:

Andy2402

Active Member
Oct 9, 2014
18
0
Thanks for the reply I've done some small stuff on previous cars like disk disc changes, belt tensioner , fuel filter. Have you carried out this task before on a leon changing the slip ring is it anything more complicated than https://youtu.be/zczDRpYi7eE. I'm half tempted to save myself 250 quid and do it myself now they have diagnosed it
 

Rosskie

Active Member
Apr 20, 2013
162
0
Did you end up doing this yourself? any tips? Mines went, a bit of a click when turning and now no controls + airbag light on. Some clicking when steering. VCDS says no communication with controls and airbag upper limit exceeded.

Think it needs coded with VCDS too.

Just wondering if any tips if you did it yourself?

I'm not gonna give a dealer 400!!!

Also noticed annoyingly VW are recalling some cars in America because of this, noting I could find about UK tho :(
 
Last edited:

Rob66

Full Member
Apr 25, 2004
1,620
93
UK
Hi Rosskie

When my airbag light came on it was the rear Airbag Sensor(s). This was a couple of years ago, think that cost me £400 + :(
 

Rosskie

Active Member
Apr 20, 2013
162
0
offt. Stingy...

Mine was the slip ring, the wire ribbon broke at the connection. Part was £220 from main dealer.

Just for the sake of anyone else looking this up with the same issue...

I've a facelift mk2 with MFSW and white dot dash display. The slip ring is integrated with the steering wheel controller in these cars.

Was easy enough to replace, worst bit was the yellow wiring clip joining the airbag to the wheel - if your removing, pull the white bit towards you, don't push!

You'll need VCDS, scan your steering wheel and take a note of the coding before removing the old part. You need to code the same number into the new controller to get everything functioning as before.

1-1.5 job max. Your need some torque keys/bits, something to pop the springs holding the airbag/horn on. I used needle nose plyers. Small electrical screw driver to help with clips.

And remove the -negative terminal on the battery before you start to hopefully avoid any airbag disasters.

any questions I should be able to advise.

Cheers

Ross
 
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