We recently had a flash flood. No big deal, I was meaning to buy a shot vac anyways.
Anyways, the day after I started using my car, and noticed that my seat belt warning light stayed on, even when I was wearing it. Same went for the “Airbag” light. A couple of days later, the seat belt light start doing what it was supposed to; it would go off once the belt was “clicked”. The airbag light has been on for some time. I figured I’d stop in to autozone and see if they couldn’t check a code for me, but the nice gal behind the counter said they can only scan CHECK Engine/Service Engine lights. The airbag light, literally just the word “airbag” luminated in red has been on for about two weeks now.
Outside of taking it to a professional, anyone have any other ideas? I imagine the flash food was nice enough to leave me with a shorted wire somewhere, but I have no idea how to troubleshoot it.
Issues with airbags and their warning lights can frequently only be deciphered by dealerships.
While I hesitate to send anyone with a 16 year old car to a dealership for any reason, this may be one of those rare instances where you have no alternative.
Thanks, I’ll look into it.
This needs to go to a pro for one reason; if you accidently trigger the airbag while trying to troubleshoot the system you’re problems might get serious quickly, as in you could get seriously injured.
How deep did the flood water get? If it got up under the seat, there’s a chance that the plug below the seat that senses a passenger’s weight is shorted.
There’s also a chance that an inertial sensor has been immersed and damaged in the flood.
I have to agree with TSM, the air bag is nothing to fool with unless you know how to disable it.
Even then I’m a little nervous working around the air bag.
Go with a pro.
Yosemite
Seeing as that’s the only issue I got from the flood, I’m not as concerned. My girlfriend’s left rear wheel bearing had to be replaced. While it’s ok if they get wet, I guess it’s not ok for them to soak for an hour or so. 