2009 Volkswagen GTI steering problems

While pulling into a gas station after leaving a stop light, the steering wheel mounted buttons and lights (horn, steering wheel, etc) flickered off when turning. At that point, the buttons failed to work unless the wheel was turned almost to full lock clockwise. It took about a day of driving until the airbag light finally came on telling me there was a fault. Further investigation LED to a faulty airbag clockspring. Numerous instances of people reporting similar failures on VW forums with similar model years.

I was traveling east in the right lane on interstate 44 at approximately 0645 in the am. It was normal heavy morning work traffic going into oklahoma city, traveling the posted speed of 70 MPH. I was following a full size pickup truck and moderate traffic was passing me on my left. Without notice, traffic suddenly slowed to approximately 40 MPH, causing me to hit my brakes hard. The ABS system engaged and my car was thrown sideways off the road at approximately 70 MPH.