Ok this is to clear up any issues people may be having about funny clunky/metallic noises coming from their steering wheel when they turn corners, here's the lowdown. Also, this comes in conjunction with your horn intermittently blasting on for no reason while you turn corners. (I've tried to include as many keywords in case people are searching for this too)

This noise, which is best descirbed as a metal-to-metal 'tink/clunk' noise, which can also be felt through the wheel occurs most obviously when turning the wheel to 180 degrees and beyond. It can also be felt, along with a lighter 'tinkle/rattle' noise when travelling along bumpy roads, train tracks, etc.

As a bit of history, my car first developed this noise after i had travelled over some unmade, corrugated dirt road and has continued on from there. situations like this can cause the problem, and from there on you're stuck with this annoyance.

The reason i write this is because this annoyance turned into a 'not roadworthy' the other day when i took my car in to get its rwc ticket, ready to sell the car. The guy claimed that because he doesn't have a technical knowledge of the steering wheel, he couldn't rule out that it was a problem with the airbag (even though the airbag light came on and disappeared as prescribed) and therefore he wouldn't give me the rwc.

Cut a long story short, after being hassled by many Nissan dealerships about how they don't have a manual for the car and therefore they can't work on it (how incompentent must the mechanics be to need a book?), and other people wanting over $200 to fix the problem because its 'technical' and involves a shock-horror 'airbag', i decided to take matters into my own hands.

If you have this problem please do not be fooled into thinking its some massive effort to fix.

Quite simply, my routine to fix the problem (all up 20 mins) was this:

Phone Repco, ask if they have a T50H attachment (T50 torx tamperproof)

Go to Repco, buy T50H for $9.09

Come home

Disconnect battery, pump brake pedal (discharges any extra charge)

Pull airbag fuse

Remove Shroud around steering wheel (5 Phillips head screws)

Disconnect airbag wire (biggish brown clip in right of steering column, covered in foam, sits just next to ignition)

Disconnect other connection of airbag wire (right under steering wheel, centre-not even sure if i did this)

Pop out two little plastic covers out of the side/rear of the steering wheel

Use T50H with ratchet, undo bolts-mine needed some arm strength to initially get moving-CAREFUL-the airbag wants to fall forward with them out

VERY CAREFULLY and slowly remove airbag (it's attached to the front of the steering wheel) about 4inches

Sight noise-causing-weight, sits at the top of the wheel, in a little 'holster' type arrangement (as soon as i touched it a bit i recognised the sound immediately)

Remove annoying little weight

Throw weight in bin & swear at it

Place airbag back in place

Tighten T50 bolts

Replace plastic covers

Re-connect wires

Replace shroud, do up screws

Reconnect battery, replace airbag fuse

Check car starts(a good sign)/airbag light boots up (and then disappears) ok

DONE

Now, i don't know about horn function after this has been done, it should be ok, but i had already diverted the horn wire to a switch (horn is the brown one in connection of 4 wires-follow them from the steering wheel back-you splice*not divert* the common ground-black-to your new switch as well) a few months back, so i still had horn functionality whilst i didn't actually know what the problem was inside the wheel.

And also, on my series 1 anyway (1995), you don't need any special gadgets to reset the airbag light, it works fine

I can happily say now, however, that it's all fixed and thank god the problem is gone for good. For those with an inquiring mind, the weight is there as a counter balance for road vibrations, honestly the difference is like 10% more daihatsu-feel without it, within like a week you won't remember any different, plus if you've had the problem for months like me, having a noiseless steering wheel is heaven on earth

PLEASE-i bear no responsibility for anyone taking apart steering wheels that have airbags in them because there is always is a chance they can go off (although in theory they need charge to). I have merely documented my process. Also please note it is totally illegal and against ADRs to replace an airbag wheel with a non airbag wheel!

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