Air Bag warning light flashes intermitantly

09 PT Cruiser has begun displaying Air Bag light (sounding alarm) intermittently…
At first I thought driving over RR tracks or pot holes but realize it could go off just sitting at the traffic light. What could be the culprit?

I am not sure about your vehicle, but an air bag light can come on if there is something on the passenger seat that is lighter than a human.
but you might have a problem with the air bag sensor, faulty connector or wire.

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Thanks for the quick reply.
I’m curious how sensitive that sensor would be. I will sometimes have a bottle of water, iPad, or just “stuff” in my daily gig bag (laser tape measure, screw drivers, gaff tape, ear buds) All pretty light weight but still some weight of sorts I will pay more attention next trip to see what gives.

any of that stuff will set the light to go on.

A weight somewhere between 20 and 99 lbs should illuminate the “Passenger Airbag Off” light, it should not cause a malfunction or the airbag warning light to illuminate. There should be a fault stored in the airbag control module.

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Might be the clockspring inside the steering wheel. Or could be a failed crash sensor (it was this on my truck) or loose connection under the passenger seat. Need to get the code read in order to narrow it down.

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My guess for an 09, the clock-spring has developed a problem. OP, the airbag is connected by wires to the car’s computer, but is located in the steering wheel. The problem is that the steering wheel turns. That means those wires flex every time the steering wheel is turned. The clock-spring gadget is an arrangement of the wires to mitigate the problem. But it won’t work indefinitely. Metal fatigue eventually wins.