Airbag Light Code 21

[ozspearo]

Hi all,

My '02 Boxster S has finally succumbed to the dreaded airbag fault. It started as a once-every-two-months problem but is now coming on 2 out of every 3 starts. It comes on within the first 5-60 seconds of starting the car. It clears with the Durametric software and doesn't come back again whilst driving the car.

I'm in the middle of selling the car (moving overseas next month) so I need to fix it, but I don't have a great deal of spare time. Given the symptoms (Code 21, only happens on start-up, doesn't return after clearing, progressively worse over the last 6 months) can anyone suggest where I should look first, ie. what's the most likely cause, so I can save myself some time.

I have an Avionics background (23yrs+ on military aircraft) so I'm confident I can fix it myself, but I'm hoping someone can save me a lot of time by suggesting what I should look at first (I'm assuming the plug at the back of the airbag is where I'm headed, but would like to hear what everyone thinks before I start dismantling the car).

TIA,

-Scott

[ozspearo]

So I took the airbag out today. I was going to disconnect the plug, spray it with contact cleaner and put it back together, but I had trouble disconnecting the plug so I didn't force it.

While trying to disconnect the plug I noticed it and the contact ring/clock spring where rotating very freely whilst the steering wheel remained stationary. Is this normal? I know very little about the contact spring, other than it allows you to turn the steering wheel while still providing power to the airbag, etc. I thought it would have been fixed to the wheel and not be able to rotate independantly?

-Scott