Guide. How To Fix The Indicator Stalk Yourself.

[Mark and Cath]

I have just had the indictor stalk fail on our little Aygo and I thought I would share the fix.

The symptoms were obviously no indictors, the hazards worked though, but if I wiggled the stalk the indicators would come on and so I knew it was a bad connection. Sorry no pictures this time but it is fairly easy to do and explain.

Do the following:

1) Disconnect the Battery!!! This is important as you will be unplugging an airbag but don’t worry it isn’t dramatic you just need to make sure it is dead and no Battery connected is the easiest way.

2) Undo the 2 Torx screws in the side of the steering wheel that hold the airbag in place and gently pull it forward.

3) Remove the wiring plug for the horn from the centre hub connector and remove the wiring for the airbag from the airbag itself and leave the airbag wiring to the centre hub. The airbag plug is yellow and has a lock on it, to explain the lock is tricky but a picture say a thousand words so go to http://www.justanswer.com/nissan/3klf2-07-nissan-versa-clocksprings-conect-driver.html , scroll down to the bottom and you will see locked and unlock pictures of the connector.

4) Now undo the 19mm centre bolt that holds the steering wheel on but only move it 2 or 3 turns. Get a helper now for 2 minutes. Try to pull the steering wheel off, it won’t come off because it is on a taper, but keep pulling and get your helper to tap, and I do mean tap, the centre nut with a hammer and the vibration will loosen the taper and the steering wheel will pop forward.

Remember I said only loosen the nut 2 or 3 turns? When the steering wheel jumped forward it stops on the nut and not on your nose! Now gently push the steering wheel back, remove the nut, mark the steering wheel so you know where it came off and remove the steering wheel.

5) Now you lose the plastic trim. 2 screws in the front and the top wriggles off and 1 screw in the bottom and the bottom plastic also wriggles free.

6) Now you see wiring central of this little car, don’t panic it all plugs in. The central hub that connects the airbag and horn needs to go first and is held on by 3 clips and about 120 degrees apart. There is one directly at the top and 2 more at bottom left and bottom right. To free them just bend them back very slightly and pull the hub away from the car. There is enough wiring here to leave the hub connected and just let it hang down loose.

NOTE. The front of the hub is designed to turn when the back doesn’t, this is how you can move the steering wheel and not break to wires. There is however a limit to this and if you let the front move to much it will fail when you put it all back together. Easiest fix is just wrap a bit of stick tape around the ring and that will stop the front and back rotating.

7) Next unplug the 3 plugs that connect the faulty stalks, I say stalks because they both come off together. Look at the top between the stalks and the speedo and you will see a clamp you usually see on coolant hoses, this is what holds the stalks on and to be fair it works fine. Either use long nosed pliers to pinch it together and pull the stalks off or undo the 2 10mm bolts that hold the speedo in and lift that clear to give you a bit more room to work.

8) Yippee! you now have the stalks in your hand and it should take about 15 minutes to this point.

9) Working on the back of the stalks, undo the 2 tiny screws that hold the back cover on the indicator side, they are right up against the stalk itself and then unclip the cover from the centre (a small screwdriver will ease the clips off). Once the cover is off you see the main board inside.

10) There is only 1 screw in the middle of this and some clips to tease off along the edges. The centre section is again the tightest but be patient and it will clip out and the board comes free. There is a wire to this board but you don’t need to unplug it as there is plenty of play in the wire.

11) Now you see the heart of the switch. There is a tiny little brass connector with 3 arms at the end of the stalk that is the problem, you will see the arc it moves on very clearly on the back of the board you just took out. The arms have bent back with the years and no longer make a good contact, to fix just bend each arm back up by a mm or so, clean the muck of the board where is contacts, a fresh drop of grease and clip it back together.

12) To test it simply clip the board back in and replace the screw, don’t worry about the back cover as that only keeps the muck out, plug it back in, connect the Battery and try it.

NOTE. Doing this will store a fault in your airbag ECU because you have just turned the ignition on with no airbag connected but the airbag light doesn’t stay on once it is all put back together. To avoid this you can either plug the airbag back in as well or put it all back together now if you are confident.

13) A bit of a faff but not difficult and will save you a fair bit against the price of new stalks and the garage bill.

I hope this helps someone else fix their car.

[Valvematic]

Thankyou this is useful for me to centre my steering wheel after it has been tracked in the past.

[Unklian]

Just a suggestion......

Use only grease designed specifically for copper / brass electrical components.
Or petroleum jelly (Vaseline).

DO NOT use "normal" grease.

It is manufactured to be acidic, This helps it adhere to and penetrate the surface of steel / iron.

If you use normal grease on electrical contacts, they will soon turn green & disappear.

Never use grease on Battery terminals for the same reason.

Ian.

[Mark and Cath]

An interesting point that I hadn't considered but you are indeed correct. I used lithium based white grease, I don't think it is acidic but I will check.

Thanks

[Unklian]

Just looked it up myself.

My knowledge was very old school.

Lithium soap or grease is non-corrosive.

Apparently, most automotive greases these days have corrosion inhibitors.

Hope I didn't scare anybody. Looks like I jumped the gun.

(I will still use Vaseline for Battery terminals though!)

Ian.

[leefish]

would this also apply to an 2008 AURIS.

[honeybee]

done the stalk fix but when I reassemble and connected the Battery the main beam came on and cannot get switch them off.

[Gmaninafrenchcar]

I have done this twice now........use these video's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czOYDNvv8NI&list=LL_0-DhtakDUTvZXZvr9ABbA&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDCjvGSljHw&list=LL_0-DhtakDUTvZXZvr9ABbA&index=6

 

Cheers :)

[AndrewS681]

Thanks very much - your advice, together with a couple of YouTube videos helped me to navigate my way to a happily working Aygo indicator switch - which would be an MOT fail if it wasn't. Cleaning the internal copper tracks (which were coated with oxide/hardened grease and bending the little contact-wiping fingers made all the difference.

[BrianDoody]

On 4/12/2017 at 8:17 PM, honeybee said:

done the stalk fix but when I reassemble and connected the Battery the main beam came on and cannot get switch them off.

Same thing just happened to me, its the sliding piece inside the switch which causes this if it moves during the fix for the indicators, it needs to be replaced with the channel on its underside located in the stub of the moving switch under it.

best way is NEVER turn the switch once the back and contact plates have been removed!!!!

[Hammer Pawn 007]

My Aygo had this problem... used the above solution and it worked...I felt good...the wife was impressed...but...the back lights are no longer working! Any advice would be much appreciated...thanks.

[Cheaky]

Many thanks for the excellent guide Mark.  Just fixed the indicators on my Yaris, using your guide.

Classic scenario as you described:  build-up of grease (which I think was as manufactured) inside the switch, on the lower side corresponding to the right-turn indicator direction.  Cleaned up carefully, with a delicate adjustment of the three-pronged contact:  now all working.

For anyone else tackling this, note two things:

• the three-pronged contact is not fixed rigid - it is held in place only by spring-pressure from the opposite contact plate (on the lid of the switch) - take care to ensure it does not fall out of place;
• inside the switch there is a loose white plastic component associated with the headlight full-beam on/off mechanism - take care to keep the switch upright, or replace this component correctly if it drops out.

I recommend an hour of patience with good lighting at the kitchen table!

Great guide Mark - thank you.