Here's a picture. There two little tabs on the yellow connector that stick into the socket. But without them, they're still snug

ok so update, i drove, the light stayed on...

so i decided to go back and put my old steering wheel back on, and the light is now still on. my luck just sucks..

I remember another member going through this a number of years ago. Turns out that some earlier vehicles cannot use later AB's and vice versa. If memory serves, and I'm prepared to be corrected, the early vehicles had "single stage" AB's but later have a "dual stage" AB's.
A search of threads from 3 or 4 years back might reveal the discussion from that time.

Interesting. But would it really not work going from a 2005 to a 2004 vehicle?

The codes would have to be cleared again after swapping back, they do not clear themselves. But as I said, odds are it has something to do with the connector housing and the terminating bridge.

Thanks weasel, I checked all connections, put the new one back on. It's at my Indy, hopefully when he clears the codes they won't come back...

If the codes won't clear y'all should find the terminating bridge on in the airbag end of the connector and bypass it/prop it open yourself with a tiny piece of plastic. I'd hate for one tiny little piece of plastic missing from the connector to stop your upgrade.

weasel, thank you for all the help, you really know this stuff.

anyway, my entire slip ring needed to be replaced, i wonder how that could have broken during my install, i thought i was very careful.

My steering wheel is in and feels great, after much pain and suffering!

Weasel is there anyway please we can have pics to show what you are referring to and if we bypass this terminating bridge does it make disconnecting in the future more dangerous cos it is prone to static electricity, have been searching for a while and cannot find the connector (has a code on the back as below) either on realoem, or the tyco 10/03 = tyco 699471-2 >PBT GF20< BMW 8 379 424