I have a 204 Sebring Convertible. As soon as our Colorado spring temps warm up to 40-50 degrees, or so, my airbag light comes on! When I took it to the shop the last time, the light wasn’t on, of course. But it was still cold outside and it NEVER comes on in the colder temps! Any ideas what’s going on? Are the warmer temps causing the sensor to malfunction? I’m puzzled. Why doesn’t this happen when it’s below 40 degrees outside?! (Ps. It is garage kept, too.)
The first thing I would do is pull the fuse and start pulling and cleaning all of the connectors - or ask the shop to do it. Dialectric grease should go on to all the connectors to help make sure they are sealed up.
THANK YOU!! I will set hubby on this project first thing tomorrow morning! I thank you, and he probably wishes I had no access to the Internet. LOL!! Yet another “Honey do!”
Do make sure that the fuse gets pulled first. Do make sure that it goes back in when everything is done.
Tell him that the airbag wires are probably well marked. On my GM they all get their own special bright yellow wrap. That could be standard for all I know, or specific to maker - but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t obvious which connections those are.
If I dispatched this job to an employee and that is the tactic he wanted to start with, well he would find out how well those wheels on his box worked.
Check the history of the deployment unit and check for TSB’s. Pulling and cleaning fuses is not the way to proceede, perhaps an inspection of connectors where water intrusion could happen is reasonable but not at the fuse box.This diagnosis must have a stratagey
Who said anything about cleaning fuses?
Soon after I bought my current van the airbag light would come one once in a while. I did exactly what I said above and it has not shown a thing in over a year. What is so odd about starting with the basic and simple? And why would one check history and TSBs instead of having a scanner put on the system?
Tell you what froggie66, I assure you that making sure electrical connections are clean and tight is frequently a good first step. It can’t hurt and it is cheap and easy.
If this gets done and the light comes back on then someone with the right equipment should scan the system for error codes.
Hey cig the way you check history is with a scanner, “history” as in code history. Always check TSB’s as soon as you have verified the concern,if you cant verify concern still check for TSB’s your work may already have been done.
You ask “who said check fuses” well what conections at the fuse box do you check if it isn’t the connections to the fuses? “pull the fuses and start cleaning the connectors” sounded to me like you wanted the conductive ends of the fuses cleaned, what did you want cleaned, the socket the fuse fits into? same dead end there.
Don’t those systems, have their own backup battery system? Pulling a fuse might not deactivate the system.
At various places in my car - under the seats and the dash are electrical connections for the ABS system. I’m assuming, for instance, that the under seat connectors are for weight sensors or something like that. I never looked into it very closely. My light was coming on once in while. I went through and cleaned all electrical connectors - this has nothing to do with the fuses. The pulling of the fuse is about killing the circuits while you work on the plugs. Pull apart the plug, inspect, spray out with electronics cleaner, apply dialectric grease, plug back in. My problem gone and I spent neither the time nor the money to have anyone scan it. If the problem had persisted I would have done so.
I will just add that maybe I just work on a different logic b/c I have never spent any time in a shop surrounded by all of the right equipment, as I know you have oldschool. My first question about a problem is always what the simple things are b/c I avoid shops as much as I can. For starters there are large time and logistics problems. Then there is the cost. Then there is the problem that having a tech at a repair business look into a problem always opens up a can of worms that I’d rather leave closed.
My own experiences have simply led me to not trust anyone - not necessarily in terms of honesty but in terms of due care and competence. The airbag light problem in my own car is just one “episode” of many where I had potentially complicated problems turn out to be very simple. I’m pretty sure my problem was a loose connection to the sensor under the driver’s seat. Could you imagine me at the shop - “oh, the code says you need a new sensor. That’s integrated into the whole seat so we have to replace the whole seat. It’ll only cost you $600.” Well, I don’t actually know about all of that but I have been in those situations before. Anyway, I “fixed” the problem with about 30 mins of time and 50 cents worth of cleaner and grease.