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Repair Topics / Air Bag
Car Air Bag Question and Answers
This category contains featured questions as examples. They relate to most vehicles.
Question: 1998
Toyota Camry 4 mileage: 89,000. My airbag
light is staying on all the time.
Answer: The airbag light
will "light" when there is a malfunction in
the airbag system. The fault is present in
the air bag controller. The computer must be
scanned to retrieve these stored faults to
pinpoint the malfunctioning component. Your
airbag system is not functioning.
Question: 1999 Ford
Windstar mileage: 103,500.
My vehicle's air bag light is flashing in a
5+1 sequence (5 rapid blinks, a short pause,
another blink and a slightly longer pause).
I saw on another site that this may be an
"intermittent short to ground", but I have
absolutely no idea what that means, what
could cause it, if it has any impact on the
functionality of the air bag, or how much it
would cost to have it repaired?
Answer: The flashing
light indicates a problem with your air
bags. Do not attempt to do any repairs to
the system yourself. Take it to the Ford
dealer or a qualified service center.
Question:
1999 Buick Century mileage: 75,000. I
have been looking at wrecked cars lately at
my father in law's auto body shop.
Whenever he works on cars where the airbag
has gone of, the dealer tells him he has to
replace all the impact sensors and the air
bag control circuitry. I took apart
one of the impact sensors that had no
visible damage, I couldn’t see any reason
that it needed to be replaced. When I
took apart one of the control boxes their
was no obvious damage there either. I
know their is a lot more than what you see
to that control box but I don’t know of any
other electronic circuitry that is a one
time use. Is there really a need to
replace this stuff or is it just someone
trying to milk some more money out of you?
Is there any way to test to find out if it
is still ok?
Answer: The sensors have
gold contacts, which arch inside upon
impact. If used a second time the
chance of a malfunction rises.
Consequently, saving a few dollars is not
worth the risk of injury or worse lose of
life from a malfunctioning airbag.
Question:
1997 Nissan/Sentra GXE 4 cyl mileage: 64,000.
What are the procedures for reinstalling
dual airbags and the airbag diagnostic
sensor ? We want to prevent them from
engaging while we install them.
Answer:
Disconnect the battery, wait 15 minutes then
proceed with your repair.
Question:
1997 Hyundai Elantra 1.8 ODC, mileage:
62,000. I was driving and pulled out in
traffic, so I had to gun it some. When the
engine revved up, all of a sudden the fan on
the air conditioner got faster, BOTH
headlights blew out, and the air bag light
came on. The culprit was the alternator
voltage regulator. I had the alternator
replaced and replaced the headlights myself.
The airbag light is still on. Everything
else works fine. HERE IS MY QUESTION. How do
I get the airbag light to reset? Is it a
switch that you just reset or do you think
it fried something in the circuit? If so,
what and can I replace it myself? The car
repair place wants $45 just to hook it to a
computer to see what’s wrong. Please help
and save me some money if you can.
Answer:
The air bag malfunction indicator is
illuminated because the main controller has
detected a malfunction. Scan Air Bag system
to determine the cause.
Repair Topics / Air Bag
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