The first thing to check here is what’s called the clock spring. This is an electrical connector inside the steering wheel that allows the wheel to be turned to full lock and back while still allowing for electrical contact between the airbag and the rest of the car.

If this spring fails, the connection between the airbag and the systems that would trigger it in a crash are lost. Which means that in a big enough collision, the airbag would not fire and protect the driver.

Clock spring replacement is relatively simple but it’s still a job best left to the pros, as any time you’re messing with an airbag, you’re playing with a fairly violent explosive component. Get it wrong and accidentally fire the airbag, and you could be seriously injured.

I’ll assume it’s a Hyundai dealership that wants to charge you to assess the car. And I hear what you’re saying about the car’s service history and the fact that some of these engines have been fixed by Hyundai because they were faulty from new. So, the best advice is to forget about the dealership and go straight to Hyundai’s customer service department at head office.

That cuts out the middle man at the dealership and should get you in touch with somebody who knows whether your car was one of the affected ones or whether you’ve just been unlucky in this instance. My experience has been that Hyundai takes this stuff very seriously and has helped other owners in the past. However, your case will still be assessed according to the service history and how many kilometres the car has covered.

The ABS warning is for a problem with the anti-lock braking system (that's what it stands for) and the image of a serving car is to warn you that there’s also potentially a problem with the car’s stability control. So, no, it’s not the transmission at fault here.

Both the ABS and stability control are crucial safety systems and the car really shouldn’t be driven until these problems have been checked out and rectified. The first thing to do is take the car to a workshop and have it electronically scanned. The onboard computer will have logged the faults as they were detected and will be able to identify the problem areas to give the mechanic a head-start on working out what’s wrong.