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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.
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