The cruise control in my son's 2007 VW Eos started failing intermittently, so we plugged in my scan tool and discovered that the switch on the turn signal stalk was faulty. Lots of things had to come apart to replace it, including removal of the airbag, steering wheel and several electronic modules behind the steering wheel. We got it all apart without incident, replaced the turn signal stalk and put it all back together.

When we started the car, there were a number of warning lights on the dash (which was expected after having the battery disconnected for a couple hours), so we plugged the scan tool back in to reset a few systems, including the steering angle sensor. We went through the process several times, each time ending with the scan tool claiming success, but we were still left with the steering angle light and the traction control light illuminated. We then proceeded to disassemble everything again to be sure all the electrical connectors were plugged in, no pins were bent, etc. Everything looked fine, so we put it all back together with exactly the same results as before.

Some searching on the web of the error code from the scan tool led me to the conclusion that the steering angle sensor was bad, so I ordered a new one. I was not exactly sure where the sensor lived in the steering column, but having the new one in hand should make it easy to spot once we were in there again. So, for the third time, the airbag, steering wheel and a bunch of other stuff came off. I did not see anything that resembled the new sensor I had in my hand, but after some more looking, I did see a spot where it looked like it would fit. I then wondered if somehow we had simply forgotten to put the old one back in, but we did not have any spare parts when we were done. Or so we thought... A search of the car resulted in finding the old sensor under the driver's seat. It had apparently fallen out as we were unplugging and unclipping all the other components.

We installed the new sensor (which exactly matched the old one) since we had it, and it was nearly 10 years newer than the old one. We put it all back together, started the car, and we were back in business. In the future, I will be sure to take pictures of things along the way to be sure that the finished project looks the same as before we started.

John in Idaho