Dear Car Talk,
I have a 2005 Hyundai Sonata LX with 138K miles. Its a dream to drive and I’ve had no real problems - except a pesky Air Bag lamp on dash that won’t go out. In the past, I have jiggled some wires under the driver seat and it would go out. My wife insists it is the seat belt buckle device and I explain that there is no connection as the light formerly would go out whether or not the seat belt was buckled. Who’s right? And what does the idiot light mean? Is the seat belt disabled when me or the wife drives it? And now that it won’t go out, the saftey inspection fails.
Safely frustrated.
Doesn’t matter who is right about the seatbelt, you are both wrong to ignore the airbag light!
What does your owners manual say that light means? Why would you ignore a warning light for a safety system?
The answer is; There is a problem with your airbag system and as long as the light is ON, you have NO airbags.
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A guess would be the sensor in the passenger seat but it is a dealer repair item . Just have it fixed as this is not a do it yourself problem.
The wiring that you moved under the drivers seat is probably for the side airbag located in the seat back. A poor/intermittent connection in the side airbag circuit will cause the airbag warning light to illuminate and will likely be a costly repair.