Was finally able to get my 2009 135 into the dealership today for the safety recall replacement of the Takata steering wheel airbag. Service was friendly, took a shade less than an hour, and she was all done. Easy.
Took a left-hand turn out of the dealership, and as I straightened out I noticed that the turn signal failed to automatically disengage. I manually did so, figuring that maybe I just hadn't taken a sufficient enough turn for the clockspring to rotate back around enough to do it on its own.
Next turn, much sharper one this time, and it's definitely a thing. Both turn signals fail to disengage normally after a turn, and require that I manually turn them off. A minor annoyance, but given that this functioned before replacement of the airbag it seemed reasonable that it would continue functioning. I pull over, called the dealership, and explained my hunch (clockspring issue; likely it got damaged or misaligned during [un]install of the airbag).
Service manager told me - paraphrasing - "the clockspring does sit behind the airbag, but my tech tells me that the airbag pops out and right back in, and isn't quite sure what the culprit could be. We'll have to schedule you a time to come back in, so we can take a look." Basically, that the clockspring can't be the issue because during replacement of the airbag the tech doesn't nudge, bump, or otherwise tamper with it.
These guys are lovely, and I'm not throwing them under the bus. I also haven't cracked open a BMW steering wheel since my first e36, so I could be way off base.
With all of the background out of the way, curious if (a) my hunch is accurate, (b) anyone has experience in mucking about with the clockspring, and (c) if this could be the result of the new airbag missing some sort of piece or being shaped differently on the back side. Iirc, my e36 clockspring had a particular profile on its inner surface that matched up to the back of the airbag to keep it oriented in a uniform way; otherwise it wasn't "seated" against the frame of the steering wheel, and would result in the signal stalk just pushing it around after a turn. Not sure if that design has changed significantly since the mid-90s.
Thanks in advance, folks. Sorry for the novel.
