I'd agree that the it's time to take off the steering wheel. Disconnect the battery first, unless you have the tools to reset SRS errors.
Great pics,
Qsilver7 - shows the likely fault areas well.
I hope you not are looking at a failure in the clockspring/slip rings. I recently helped a friend diagnose and fix that failure - quite a journey. About two years ago he got an SRS warning light. Got a local auto-electrician (that claims to specialise in SRS repairs) to read the codes - drivers airbag impedance high. Seesm like a straight forward fault description, but oh no, he claims its a dead SRS module. So over $1200 later in parts and labour, it's "fixed". No SRS light. For a week. Then it came back. He takes the car back and a day later claims it is again, "fixed". He has put the original SRS module back in, mutters something about it being a different issue. So my friend now has a spare SRS module. Car is fine for nearly two years then bing! - SRS warning is back. At the same time, the cruise control packs up. He calls me and I say "clockspring". He orders a new one, installs it, gets SRS error cleared and everything is working well. Out of curiosity, we pulled the old clockspring apart... and are greeted by a very shonky attempt at repairing the clock spring - what is likely to be the original fault site.
