air bag light
 

Hi everyone. The last couple of drives, the air bag warning light and seat belt warning light in my 91 C2 have stayed on. The manual says the seat belt light staying on is also an indication of an air bag problem. Has anyone else had this happen? If so, what did it turn out to be? I just had the 10-year check on the air bag system done a few months ago. Thanks.

Hi Tom,

Is your clock still working? If it isn't, then it's the loss of power to your clock causing the warning lights to be locked-in.

If it was just your airbag light that's on, I would suspect the clock. There is a tech bulletin out on the clock circuit board, and
I had my clock replaced because the airbag light kept coming on after being reset. However, in my case, I didn't have a problem with the seat-belt light staying on.

The new clock cost me $169.07, some two years ago.

Do you have a local mechanic that can check the system for error codes, and perhaps reset the warning lights?

Hope this helps.

When I was hunting for a 911, I saw this on a fair amount of 964s...not the majority, maybe 10-15% of them. Some had been in wrecks, but most hadn't. The connectors to the sensors apparently can corrode or get loose. That's the first place I would look, since it's the easiest to check and fix. Most people who have run into this have had to do nothing more than clean off the connectors and make sure they are seated properly.

Hope this helps,

Bill Wagner
'91 C4

Thanks. I think the clock is still running, but I'll double check when I get home. Besides, the other lights on the same instrument are OK and the manual says that the seat belt light is also part of the air bag circuit.

I will certainly check the connections first chance I get and, failing something obvious, I guess I'll bring it to the dealer.

Thanks again.

OK, so I finally got the car to the dealer, and the problem IS the clock. I was quoted about 169.00 for the clock price, so that is just as Randall suggests above. However, the total cost with labor for replacement is about $450 because they need to pull apart the dash and change the needles (they have to use a 993 clock apparently). Does this sound right? Do I have an alternative? How hard would it be for me to replace the clock myself? how time consuming? Thanks again.

Must keep saying: i love this car, i love this car, i love this car.

Hi Tom,

The labor charges do not sound right at all!
As you can see, I also own a '91 C2. While I don't have the receipt in front of me, the labor charge for installing the clock was hardly anything.

The clock does have a 993 part #, and the needle is a (very, very) slightly different shade of orange. If you hadn't seen the previous clock, you would never notice.

Replacing the clock yourself is pretty easy. The hardest part is prying the clock out of your dash (it just pulls straight out) without marring your dash. Only complication may be possibly having to go to a shop to reset the airbag light, if it doesn't clear itself when you put in the new clock.

Someone on the 993 board also wrote a few months ago of a dealer wanting to gouge them for replacing the clock--like $370. Perhaps the same dealer :confused: ??

Hi everyone,

I just got finished with pulling all of my gauges and having the faces changed to white ones. It took me all of 20 minutes to pull ALL of the gauges. This dealer is ripping you off at that price. You can pull the clock in less than 5 minutes - a lot less!

Try calling North Hollywood Speedometer to see what they can do for you. In addition to doing the faces on mine they fixed my sticky tach.

Good luck - if you have any questions just shoot me an email.

Here is what the back of the clock looks like out of the dash.

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/19.JPG

Tom,
I just ran across this eBay post for a 964 clock - you might want to check this out!http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=593724672&r=0&t=0

Thought I should add--just to be clear--that the 993 clock was installed in my car "as-is." No effort was made to pull the needle off the old clock.

Pulling the needles off of the clock? Was it by any chance a "slow day" at the repair shop you took your car to? :eek:

Cheers,

Bill Wagner

Hi Bill,

I suppose my post does sound strange "standing alone." But, I mentioned this is because Tom wrote in one of his posts that the dealer told him they need to "change the needle," and this is apparently one of the reasons they want so much money to replace his clock.

The needle on my new ("993") clock is a slightly different shade of orange compared to my original clock. But, you wouldn't know
this unless you had them sitting next to each other. This difference in shade is the only possible reason I can think of for the dealer wanting to swap needles :confused: . Or, more likely--as you suggest--a slow day at the shop :D .

Thanks guys. I talked to them again, and, to give them some credit, it just happened that the guy who called me wasn't the swiftest of the bunch. I spoke to the service manager who I have dealt with before and is very good and he acknowledged that swapping the clock out is easy. The extra cost, he said, is to run complete diagnostics and checkup on the air bag system which, he said, they always do when the air bag light goes off. I pointed out to him that I had the 10-year air bag service done a few months ago as part of my 45k work and he cut the cost way down. Its still something of a rip-off, and I wish I had just done it myself to begin with, but now that he has it half out I'll let him do it. Live and learn.

Tom:

The good part of this expensive clock service is you have good documentation of the clock update for your records.

May I ask which dealership is servicing your car?

Thanks,

Jay
90 964

Just to add something that people, especially in the USA may not be aware of. The debate on airbags has started in some earnest here in certain parts of Europe. The airbag manufacturers have only given these airbags a 15 year life. Earlier ones only had a ten year life. I think some of the early 1987 944 installations may be affected by this earlier limit.
1990 Porsches only have a few years left in them. They are talking here of manadatory (at owners cost) replacement of these airbags. Something to keep in mind for the not too distant future,
Ciao,
Adrian
911C4

Thanks Adrian for that great news. :(

Well, the total cost for replacement was $380, which is just over $200 more than the part cost, the vast majority of which is attributable to diagnostics on the air bag system. Obviously, its dealer prices, but not as bad as first quoted, and they do good work.

Jay, since you ask, was Napleton Porsche outside Chicago.