My 19 year old son smacked his "two week old" '97 VW Golf into a tree on the way to college about a month ago. Thankfully, he was not injured, but he hit hard enough to set off both airbags. Since no 19 year old can afford to carry collision and pay for tuition, the repair money will be coming out of his pocket. He’s a good kid and works hard at school and also puts in 20 hour/week at his part time job to help fund his schooling.

Because of this, we’re doing as much of the repair work ourselves as possible. We’re buying all the needed parts at a VW specialty salvage yard. This should substantially reduce the overall repair cost.

A friend who owns a collision repair shop pulled the frame back into spec and checked the 4-wheel alignment. We have begun replacing the sheet metal. This section of the work is going well and will soon be completed.

We purchased airbags, the deployment module and clockspring from the salvage yard and were told that installation is straightforward. The Bentley service manual makes the airbags seem easy enough but the clockspring and module look more complicated. Does anyone have any experience in replacing these items??

After every thing is back in the car we’ll be taking it to the local VW dealer to put the car on the VAG computer to check out the system and reset the airbag light.

Anyone care to offer any advice or thoughts. Thanks!

http://img29.photobucket.com/albums/v88/gdv350ss/vr6.jpg

Try going to www.vwvortex.com (http://www.vwvortex.com) and check out their forums. Those guys are always modifying and working on their cars. They may be able to help you out. Also try www.tdiclub.com. (http://www.tdiclub.com.) It's another VW website with good information.

Thanks Jason!
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