Steering Position Sensor & now Yaw Rate Sensor

[d-9]

Still after a faulty one of these, if anyone is prepared to mail it to seattle.

[jjvincent]

[Formaldegid]

I found this topic really useful so I've decided to register here and share my resolution of the same problem:
1) I've restored original routes with wires and painted inner circle with
Oriflame nail lacquer (stolen from wife ):

2) Bought a paper organizer and cut a circle from it:

3) Finally. I hope this should perform well. Glued to the base with the same lacquer:

[IdeaNerd]

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

[midwestOutreach]

Mine is defective so I have been looking for a replacement part ever since. Even have a WTB ad posted in the classified!

I shall look into this ! Thanks!

I'll report the results, won't get to it for another 2 weeks at least!

Gracias

[Formaldegid]

My repairing was successful. For those who might be interested in setting the sensor into correct position - here are photos with installed sensor. Steering wheel is heading direct, ODIS shows steering angle to be 0.0 degrees. Here is how it looks from the inside:

[Itsamoto]

Awesome work! I'm going to try figure out if I can fix mine now - because these are $500!

Thanks for the great pictures!

[elise111]

I contacted Formaldegid since the pics no longer show in this thread. He was kind enough to point me to another site that had his excellent write up. I will give this a try!

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&...2236348%2F

[dsheon]

Just want to say the person who figured out this fix had the sensor go bad at about 205,000 miles. I'm at 190,000 and it's gone bad.
What a mess. No aftermarket products work. No alternatives. One available on eBay used for over $800 that will go bad as well one day. Anyone else do this fix and have it work? It looks so complicated fixing wiring on a circuit board was not in the VW Eurovan owner job description.

[Formaldegid]

But what is wrong with self-repair? I made quite a good description with photos. If you are afraid to do it by yourself then go and find mobile phone service. They should be able to do it. From the technical point of view this kind of job is 5 out of 10. In other words - not so complicated but can be worth 20-50 bucks I think, even in USA

[bigfoot_ev]

Formaldegid that is an awesome repair and thanks for sharing (I used the google translate version posted above)!

I recently had my steering angle sensor off to fix foam blowing out the dash vents. I treated it like it was made of gold, well more like thin crystal. Has the plastic paper organizer held up? Would you recommend doing this to prevent problems?

I also wonder about using a thin flexible cutting board. Sand paper the back and epoxy in place.

Doing something like this before there are problems is easy. Once the traces are rubbed off it makes it more challenging, but possible like you demonstrated.

[dsheon]

Hello y'all, I would welcome some advice.

My trusted Eurovan mechanic says the Steering Angle Sensor has gone bad based on his read. My scan doesn't register the problem. The two dash lights are on consistent with the problem.

I had the clockspring removed and opened her up. To my eye, even with a magnifying glass, the trace lines look intact. I see a smudge of grease or oil on the copper looking mate that sandwiches the PC board but other than that see no issues.

I've taken a couple of photos in the hope that one of you with more experience may see something that needs repair.... Any ideas??? THANK YOU! David

I used a Google doc. https://docs.google.com/document/d/16R2XLPrQxe9ORBhStKrWIED6imh-Gm6dFoKgjBrlV3E/edit?usp=sharing

[bigfoot_ev]

There is a lot of good information in this thread so I figured I would just add to it rather than start a new thread. I did a preventative fix to the rubbing steering angle sensor. I have 2003 with about 98,000 mi.

For reference this is another thread with good information: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=670698

TL;DR

1. Disconnect battery.
2. Remove steering wheel.
3. Slide clockspring/steering angle sensor off shaft.
4. Pry apart clockspring from steering angle sensor and set aside.
5. Remove brass sensor ring.
6. Make and glue plastic protector on top of traces.
7. Reassembly is reverse of disassembly.

Make sure to review this full thread and especially the disassembly pics from Itsamoto. Before touching your airbag disconnect the negative lead from the battery. Make sure wheels are pointed straight forward and steering wheel is straight. This is important when putting things back together. For help with removing the airbag Vangeek put together a nice video: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=10175819#10175819 Once the airbag is removed set it gently to the side in a safe place.

Remove the nut and washer holding the steering wheel on, IIRC it is 24mm. Next I marked the steering shaft with the alignment mark on the steering wheel to help with reassembly.

Unplug the yellow and black connectors located on the left side of steering column that go to the clockspring. Gently pry off 2 plastic retainers on top and 1 below to loosen the combined clockspring/steering angle sensor assembly. Here is a look at the back side with the 3 plastic retainers.

Slide the whole assemble off the steering column. I left the yaw sensor connected so everything kind of hung off that wire. To remove it completely I would need to remove the knee bolster and disconnect the cable that attaches to the ignition switch, which is unnecessary. Next, you will need to separate the clockspring from the steering angle sensor. Start with the wide plastic cover and using a small thin screwdriver release 3 retaining plastic catches. Remember this is old VW plastic be gentle and patient. In this picture you can see where the wide plastic goes and one of the retaining clips.

When you pry them apart there will be a spring washer that pops out.

Once you have these separated set the clockspring aside and slide out the brass sensor ring.

The brass sensor ring rides on a lip above the pcb board, which you can see 2 photos above. On the back of the brass ring is a step that fits over this lip. I can only guess it is this combination that wears down and then allows the brass ring center support to rub. Here is a pic of the back of the brass ring.

As a starting point for the plastic protector I took a couple of measurements in mm. The center hole needs to clear the pcb lip and the total diameter should cover the brass ring center support.

This will give you a rough guide to start. I then trimmed and test fit over and over until I was satisfied with the final fit. I used a thin cutting board that had a grid on the back. I sanded that off to thin it a little and to provide grip for the glue.

Then put a very thin coat of epoxy on the plastic protector and put it in place to dry. That is silicone grease in the photo below not epoxy. I put some silicone grease on the brass ring as well.

I know it's not total coverage but I think this will work just fine. The main point is to make sure the brass center ring does not get in contact with the pcb.

Reassembly, this is where you need to pay attention. Before you can snap the clockspring back onto the steering angle sensor assy 3 things need to align.

First, make sure your clockspring is centered rotationally. That means 2 turns to the left and 2 turns to the right. Use the plug at the top as a center marker. This is the plug that the steering wheel fits over.
Second, align the little wheel with the magnet and yellow painted pointer. The yellow pointer should be straight up and visible through the window. In the picture above you can see the alignment of this wheel.
Third, the brass ring has a key that fits into a groove on the back side of the clockspring. In the picture below the key is at about 8:30 on the brass ring and you can see the groove on the clockspring. Don't forget the spring washer.

What I was able to do is to place the clockspring onto the steering angle sensor assy but NOT snap it into place. This way I could check that everything is aligned just right before committing. Spin the clockspring while holding the steering angle assy still. You can use the pins that fit into the steering wheel. This is to make sure you have your 2 turns left and 2 turns right. Don't force anything, if you feel resistance it might be your clockspring is not rotationally centered. After I snapped it together and finished reassembly I checked the steering. I have VCDS so I could make sure things were reading steering angle correctly using the ABS module and measuring block 5. I also started up the engine and turned the wheel lock to lock as another test. If things broke at least I was already in my garage. Fingers crossed this actually helps and doesn't result in some unforseen problem later on.

[Endopotential]

Thanks so much for posting that awesome tech guide Bigfoot, that'll be a huge resource for our community.

I'm still recovering from headache of getting my fried ECU back on track, so will file this into the possible winter project category.

Is this procedure doable if I don't have VCDS? Haven't looked into getting that. Looks like a $200 to get the cable and software from RossTech?
https://store.ross-tech.com/shop/vchv2_ent/

How would you weigh the pros and cons of this? It's all good protective maintenance, but if you break the clockspring coil or scratch the PCB, seems like that would be a very painful error.

[owokie]

[bigfoot_ev]

[[email protected]]

This is the way
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2001 eurovn weekender 207k fresh batteries

[samba415]

Amazing! This is deeply appreciated. This will go a long way to enable the work we need to do. I was wondering if you took more pictures of your logic board for those of us with worn traces.

I was getting up the courage for a repair like the fella in eastern Europe but can't find a clean picture of the logic board without worn traces. I'm good and steady (for the moment) with a soldering iron, but I think my eyes need some assistance of the original logic board for reassurance. If not, that's OK.

I'll put this out in the interwebs and universe now...a clear picture of the logic board would help those of us who need visual reassurances of the original layout. Most close pics I've found are of boards that are worn out.
_________________
Old stable: '63 Baja, '69 Square, '72 Bug, '65 & '67 Samba, '73 412 wagon & 2dr 4spd

Current: '04 Golf TDI, '03 Weekender

[Endopotential]

[owokie]