CAr problems: SRS light on and car pulling to the right!!

[halik008]

hi guys,

I'm about to buy another DSm after selling my old 95 Tsi AWD a year or so ago. It's 1995 red Tsi FWD automatic with +-79K for $4300. The previous owner had a LOT of troble with the car. He purchased it in '02 with around 61K on it. Two moths later then engine went. It was proffesionally replaced with used rebuilded engine of more or less the same milage. Then the turbo went and was professionally replaced with used one. THen the tranny was rebuilded after some problems, again done by proffesionals. Finally the tie rods have been replaced while the tranny was out. Other then the major mechanical problems the car itself is in immaculate condition. Shiney paint, no fadeing, beauitiful intereior, stock radio and optional cd player, no tears in leather etc.

There are two main problems to the car:

1. The airbag system SRS light went on and stayed on- The owner said the light went on not long ago and has been on since. I have no reason not to believe him, VIN in clean and i found not signs of after collision repairs. So what could cause the SRS light to trip by itself??? Any idea on how to fix it??

2.The car pulls on to the right- THe car pulls to the right and you have to keep the steering wheel to the left to go straight. The owner says the toes are fine and that it's the cams. He has read-out printed out I just do not know how to use it. He said I'll need some kind of cam kit ($79-$150) to correct this since the DSM's do not have way of camm correction. Is that true?? What kit is he talking about??? How & where can i get one and install it???

Oh almost forgot the car comes with some goodies allready installed: 1G BOV, K&N Cone, and Flow Master full CAT back.....

EDIT: THe timing belt has also been replaced and the spark plugs have been upgraded to aftermarket...

Thanks a lot.


halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

Cam kit? Cams have to do with the head of the engine, and would have no affect what-so-ever on the suspension. By cam, might he mean camber? Thats the only thing I can think of related to suspension.

 

[halik008]

blackgsx2g,

ya it must be camber, he's a rookie when it gets to cars and mechanics and i know sh!t about suspension as you can tell also....

halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

Well, camber is the the angle of the wheel from side to side of the car... like if you were looking at the tire from the back, it would look like this / \ It may affect the driviblity of the car if the right had more camber than the left, but I've never experienced this. Is there any wierd wear marks on any of the tires that could tell you which tire is pulling at all? If you can't see anything, you might take it to a shop and have them check alignment and all that for fairly cheap.

 

[blackGSX2g]

If there isn't bigger rims/tires and or an aftermarket suspension on the car, you don't need a camber kit for it and that wouldn't be the problem. My guess, seeing as you live in Michigan as well, would be that he hit one of our marvelous potholes and messed up the alignment...Easy fix

 

[halik008]

blackGSX,

cool we are on the right track then (talking about the right thing).

The tires are like new less then 10k on them so it might be hard to tell. I'll have official print out from a car shop about the toe and camber of the front tomorrow when i pick up the car, if you know what to look for. The previous owner said that the toe is even but the camber is off according to the car shop, but since there is not way of camber adjustment on DSM's he said I'll need to get some special camber kit for it.

I thought that it might be unballanced front tire/rim since i didn't see any lead weight attached to the right front rim which i thought was odd. Most usually have at least one.

Let me know what u think.

halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

The weights on the wheel don't make it run straighter, it makes the wheel spin smoother. When you drove it, did it shake at all? I may be wrong, but I think its just to make the wheel rotate smoother and balance out the imperfections in the wheel. I'm not an expert on reading those printouts, but if the whole front end alightment was skewed to the right, it might make it pull to the right. Look on the printout for the camber part. Negative camber means that the top of the tire points into the xx degrees, whereas positive camber means the top of the tire points out of the car xx degrees. It might be possible that the left front has excessive negative camber, and/or the right front might have excessive positive camber. That might throw off steering. Check that and let me know.

 

[halik008]

follow up:

The tires and rims are the OEM silver swirly 16in.

The previous owner said something about the springs might beeing aftermarket (he didn't install them), but they look like standard OEM to me and the gap between the mag well and tire looks the same as on my old talon with had standard springs...


One big thing is he DOES live in the boonies with nothing but dirt roads, so nocking it out of alignment is a big possibility. If that's the case my bro can take care of it while i watch and learn....

halik

 

[halik008]

black gsx,

I can't recall any shaking @ 60mph, but again i was too bust trying to keep the car going straight and look out for tractors on that narrow little stretch of paved road they had around there...

I'll post pic of the read-out tomorrow and maybe we can figure out.

 

[blackGSX2g]

Well if your brother can check that out and find the problem, I'd say you could get a fairly good deal on a good car. As long as your sure the car wasn't in an accident and the frame isn't bent, fixing the alightment/suspension is not that difficult for someone who knows what they're doing.

As for the SRS light, I really have no experience with that whatsoever, but you can double-check connections to make sure the airbag computer is hooked up. The computer is underneath the armrest in the center console. A new airbag computer isn't that expensive if you can find one in a junkyard. Otherwise, the car will run just fine without it. See if he'll knock a bit off the price because of it.

 

[halik008]

blackGSX,

I'm quite sure it has not been in accident. VIN is clean, didn't find any over spray, misaligment of body panels, color matches perfectly from panel to panel, only non OEM bolts were around the engine bay most likely replaced during then engine swap, and i looked all over the place for any signs of frame damge but didn't find any.

I think I'm getting a great deal. The car spend most of it's life in KY and southern OH so there is no rust to be found on the body.

And like i said almost every mechanical part on the car has been proffesionally replaced. Engine had been replaced, battery was replaced, turbo was replaced, tranny was rebuild, tie rods were replaced, bov swapped for 1g, spark plugs were replaced for aftermarket. I seen all the bills and he put like $4000 into the car in just parts replacements not to mention $6500 he bought it for little over two years ago. He only put addition +- 12K while he owned it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the engine is still under warranty until August and the tranny has 12K warranty and it has less then 1k on it.

halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

If those are the only problems with it, I'd say go for it. Both are easy fixes, and you don't even really need to fix the airbag problem...unless you really want airbags. Its something that you could always track down later on when you get more money/spare time as well. Having a warrenty on the engine/tranny is a very good thing to have, but be careful about modding it cause it'll probably void any warrenty they will give you. Though nothing is stopping you from taking off the mods when something breaks and you take it to them to have it fixed..anyways, good luck with it.

 

[halik008]

here is the camber,caster, etc. read-out on both front and rear that was done by the pervious owner 3 months ago. The pictures look like crap since i had to really contrast it since the print out is really faith... Can you tell me why is it pulling to the right and how to fix it??

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Also i ran into another weird problem while driving the car home. For some reason when i turn the A/C on the dash vents blow cold air like it's suppose to but the bottom air vents on the side of the main console are blowing hot air... What's up with that??

halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

Yea, I can't really read what most of the numbers say, but from what I can see of camber, it doesn't look like that would be a big problem. But people say that being just a little bit off can mean alot when you start driving. As long as the numbers from the right side to the left side correspond somewhat, its ok in my experience. I'd bet if you took it into any alignment place and told them its pulling to the right, they could find out why for cheap. Do any of the front wheels look different at all? When I had my saturn, I slid into a curb and it the passenger side wheel. The only way to go straight was to turn the wheel half a turn the other way. I took it in and it turns up I had bent a control arm..I doubt this is your problem cause I could really tell just by looking at it that it was messed up.

As for the A/C, I would guess that the little dial that you adjust to direct air to your feet/face isn't conneted to the air door. There is a door by the heater core that opens or closes when you want heat or not. Maybe it got disconnected somehow and is just blowing heat constantly.

 

[halik]

mwhahah just to chime in,
that car drives like DA BOMB! hehe i forgot what non-linear power output feels like... hit 4K and you get shoved back into the seat.

anyway some more info it looks like the car has been repainted at some point (overspray) and the airbags do look little shady. Does anyone sell OBD1 (or whatever they used on 95 cars) scanners for cheap? The airbag is one of those things on top of the list.

I'll jack up the car and see if the tie rods have been aligned right over the weekend, the steering pulls a lot for it to be a camber problem (difference in friction), you gotta keep the steering wheel at maybe 20 -30 degrees the other way for the car to go straight. I've got a feeling someone didnt screw the tie rod far enough and the wheel arent parallel


come to think of it, i have an extra DSM tie rod sitting around... happy b-day bro (heehee)

 

[blackGSX2g]

95 DSMs are OBDII compliant, but the SRS system operates off of a different computer. I'm not exactly sure where or if you can get a reader of that sort. I think for things like airbags and ABS, you need to take it in to a certified shop. If you want an OBDII reader, its a wise move...$199 for everything but the palm. If you want to cheap out, theres a website that sells OBDII scanners for like $80, but it only samples at 3bmp. Not bad if your not planning on tuning your car to perfecton. It'll still read/clear codes, and display all engine perameters.

 

[halik]

95 DSMs are OBDII compliant, but the SRS system operates off of a different computer. I'm not exactly sure where or if you can get a reader of that sort. I think for things like airbags and ABS, you need to take it in to a certified shop. If you want an OBDII reader, its a wise move...$199 for everything but the palm. If you want to cheap out, theres a website that sells OBDII scanners for like $80, but it only samples at 3bmp. Not bad if your not planning on tuning your car to perfecton. It'll still read/clear codes, and display all engine perameters.

being able to access the airbag control module is part of the OBD2 standard, I've got the VAG-COM for my audi and that can access every controller on the car (otherwise it would defy the point of having the obd standards).

 

[halik008]

As for the A/C, I would guess that the little dial that you adjust to direct air to your feet/face isn't conneted to the air door. There is a door by the heater core that opens or closes when you want heat or not. Maybe it got disconnected somehow and is just blowing heat constantly.

Can you give me more detailed info on there all the stuff is located, what to look for and how to fix it?? I'll try to fix it before my brother (halik is his screen name) gets here and jack up the car....

And yes the car has been given new paint job all around no just areas, but we still couldn't find any signs of collision damage...

Thanks.

halik

 

[blackGSX2g]

Well, the heater core is behind the glove box, and most of the piping from it originates there. I'm not sure exactly where the air doors are, but I'm sure if you follow the rods from the controls that move it, you should be able to find it no problem. You should be able to hear them open/close when you have the car off and turn the HVAC dial.

 

[halik008]

great, thanks. I'll look into it.

halik