How to Remove Clock Spring 2007-11 Mini Cooper S

Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. Today I'm going to show you how to remove and reinstall this clock spring, multifunction switch, headlight switch, wiper switch on this 2007 Mini Cooper S. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com. To access the battery, this little cover right here. It's a lock right here. This one looks like it's broken. This cover should fold up. It doesn't. So just going to set that aside. I'm going to take a 10 millimeter socket and a ratchet. Going to loosen up the negative terminal right here. You always want to loosen up the negative terminal. Take that off, set it aside.

So we're going to take the airbag off. We need to find this little hole underneath the steering wheel. The only reason I turned it was so that you could see it on video, but I can normally have it straight up and down and we're going to take a blunt object. You can use a three millimeter Allen. Seems to work the best. You want to slide it into that hole and I'm going to just put my hand in front of the airbag so it doesn't go flying. I'm just going to push, there's like a spring in there, and the airbag will just slide out.

Now we're going to disconnect the air bag right here at this connector and then we'll disconnect this connector for the horn. Just take a right angle pick. Just going to slide in here, this little lock. Pull that lock down, pull that connector out, and try to hold this while we disconnect this right here. Slide up on that and we were going to place the airbag in a safe location facing upwards. Right. Before we pull the wheel off, we need to disconnect the wire right here, the connector. I'm just going to use the 90 degree pick. Just going to put a little bit of pressure right here and then I'm going to use a straight blade screwdriver to release the lock, so I'll take the pick right here. I'm just going to... That's just going to put a little pressure pushing upwards. And then the straight blade screwdriver, straight blade screwdriver right in between here to release the lock, twist it a little bit. Should be able to grab the connector and pull it up. Just like that.

Now I'm going to remove this steering wheel bolt and use a 16 millimeter socket, a little extension, and a ratchet. Going to hold the steering wheel while I loosen this up. Now there's not a lot of tension on this, so just check to make sure your steering wheel is loose. We're going to make sure the steering wheel's straight before we actually take it off. That looks pretty good. Pull that bolt off.

There is a mark on the shaft of the steering column and the steering wheel itself, so we don't have to mark it. Just remember that that's there. Can slide the steering wheel right off. So one thing that's important, we don't want this clock spring to spin. We want to make sure we put it on the steering wheel on the same way as when it came off. So I'm going to use a little bit of tape and tape this just to the center shaft right here, just as long... It doesn't have to be wicked tight or anything. Just as long as it keeps it from spinning. That would be good. Just do that. And that should be good.

We're going to remove this panel underneath here, so there is some screws that fasten this on. I'm going to use a T20 Torx and a ratchet. Loosen these screws up. There's one, two, three, three screws. Once we get those out, should be able to grab this panel, pull it straight out. There's some clips that hold it on. One here, one here.

So there's a bolt that's held in right here. It's a Torx bolt. It's a T30. there's one here and there's also one on the other side. What you're going to have to do is make sure your steering column is telescoped all the way out and then all the way forward and lock it in place.

I'll just use my T30 socket extension and a ratchet. Once it's started, I can just do it by hand. And I'll do the same with the other one. Next I have to move the tachometer out of our way. So we're going to take that off. We'll use a T30. There's two Torx bolts on both sides up here. T30. I'll use an extension and a ratchet. Take that one out. Loosen it up. Then I'll loosen this one up as well. Loose. Wiggle this up. Just going to use a magnet, take these two screws out. And I can just take the tach and slide it forward. Move that out of our way.

Now we're going to take this top cover off. I'm just going to use a trim tool to help. I'm just going to pry out a little bit on the bottom. Then there's a clip right here. Release that. This one in the back here. Pry out on this side. Release that. Give me a little more room. Just like that. Pull up on it. Be careful not to break it. Just like that because there's clips here, here, here, and here. There's two Torx fasteners that I need to remove. I'm going to use a T20 and ratchet. Remove these two. Another one on this side. Just move the tachometer out of our way. All right. Once we pull that out we can grab the lower part of the steering column cover, slide it out. Then we have to release the adjuster for the telescoping function. This is also a wire harness connector right here. Just take a flat blade screwdriver, get this retainer off. And this will slide right out.

All right. I'm going to be careful with this clock spring. I'm just going to take this tape off. I'm going to put some new tape because I'm going to be able to get it from the outside here. Just tape it there because this whole piece is going to come off. And that'll keep that from spinning. Backside of this clock spring, we're going to take a 90 degree pick. There's some connectors. Just slide this down on the lock, disconnect that connector. And then this is a type of connector that has this handle. We push down this lock here and there's a little handle here. It's going to slide out and as that slides out, the connector comes up. Disconnect that.

Now I'm going to loosen up this clamp right here. I'm going to use a T30 Torx and extension and a ratchet. It should be loose by now. All right. Now I'm going to take a 90 degree pick. There is a clip right here underneath. I'll show it to you better once it's out. I'm just going to raise it up. There's one on both sides. I'm going to try to lift it up, pull a little pressure, and then try to get the other side. And then slide it right off. These right here are the two clips. It's clipped in right there and also right there.

All right. We're going to take this clock spring, multifunction switch, wiper switch. Just slide this back on here. Make sure this clamp is on there correctly and lined up. It's locked in place. Let's take this T30, slide it into that clamp. We'll snug this up. Just do it by hand until it gets too tight. Then I'll use my ratchet. I'll take the ratchet and just snug it up a little bit. All right. That seems good. Now we're going to reconnect these connectors. Remember this handle needs to be in this position for this. Slide this up here.

It's going to connect into the top part. Push it in. I'm going to move that handle. It's going to lock in place just like that. We'll take the other connector. That's going to connect into the bottom. Push it in place. We're going to install this lower column cover. I'm just going to peel back our tape a little bit from this. It'll make it easier when we go to pull it off. Still don't want that to spin. All right. May have to pull the adjuster down so you can line this up properly. Once you get it in there then we can adjust this back down. Lock it back in place.

I'm going to install these longer columns screws. Goes right here. Get that one started and then also one on this side. It goes right there. So now I'm going to use a T20 Torx bit and a extension and a ratchet. We'll just snug these up. Remember it is in plastic so you don't want to go too tight. I'm going to push up on the cover a little bit and make it easier to tighten these down. Snug that up. It's good. We're going to put these bolts in down below here. One on each side. They're the Torx screws, go down below. And I'm going to take my T30 socket extension and a ratchet and I'm just going to snug these up.

I'm going to put this upper cover on. Slide this in right here. These clips are going to line up. They're in there and you just lock them in place just like that. Next we'll take these two Torx screws. I'm just going to start them in this tachometer first. Try to line this up. Take my T30 and an extension. This is a little bit tricky to get on here. There's this thing in the back, has to slide into these two little grooves. So you kind of got to push it down, put the column down all the way.

Okay. That looks right. It's in there correctly. Takes a little bit of effort. That's not too hard. We'll just snug these up. Snug the other one up. It's good. I'm going to reinstall this lower panel. Remember these little tabs right here. Click in, line that up. Put a little pressure. Whoops. Should lock in place. We'll take these screws underneath. One goes right here. Get that one started. We have two more. One here and one here. We'll take our T20 socket and we'll tighten this up. Tighten these ones up as well. Snug those up. Now we'll take the steering wheel. We can remove this tape. Just be careful. Make sure that clock spring doesn't spin. You don't want to ruin it.

Line this up. Line that mark up with the mark on the shaft. You may have to move this a little bit. There we go. That's lined up. Now I can connect this electrical connector here. Just like that. Take the bolt, the 16 millimeter socket and extension. We're going to take a torque wrench and we're going to work this to 46 foot-pounds. You're going to make sure you hold the steering wheel while you do this. Just like that. We're going to take the airbag, we'll connect these connectors right here and then this connector's going to go here. Push that in like that. Make sure the wires are out of the way. Line the airbag up and just push it down. Now we're going to reconnect the battery. Take the negative battery cable, slide it over on the battery. Take the 10 millimeter socket and ratchet. Just snug this up and then just shake the terminal. Make sure it's tight. And if your door's still attached, just slide it down and lock it in place.

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