The clock spring is a wound-up ribbon cable in a housing under the steering wheel. It is a common failure item. Eventually the air bag light will turn on too when the cable finishes breaking.
It is extremely important to have the wheels straight ahead when replacing the clock spring. The new part will have a sticker on it and mechanical locks that prevent you from turning it until it is installed. Installing the steering wheel releases the locks. That's done because the ribbon cable is just long enough to allow for turning from full left to full right. If you install the clock spring off-center by half a revolution, it will either get tight in one direction and pull apart or it will fold over on itself in the other direction and eventually break.
caradiodoc
Dec 31, 2018 at 12:36 PM
(Merged)