Since December, I have had the SRS airbag light indicator come on in my 2006 Honda Accord (EX-L, 2.4 L, Automatic), but only in the morning, and only when the outside temperature has been below freezing the night before. After a few minutes when the car warms up, if I turn the car off and then back on the SRS light is gone. The rest of the day, no problem. Figuring that it was not the safest thing to drive with, I had it checked out by a repair shop that I feel comfortable with. They checked the code and said that it showed up as a faulty SRS computer, and the computer would need to be replaced. It seems crazy to me that a 2006 Accord with under 52,000 would need a new SRS unit, so I started looking online to see if I could find any info. I saw about the SRS units in previous Accords, but it seems like they have those issues ironed out in the 2005 and 2006. I did however, see that some people have said that low voltage also could trigger the same defective code in the SRS unit, which got me thinking. The original Honda battery died and was replaced at the end of November with an AC Delco ACD 51R60 (460 CCA). My original theory was that the AC Delco battery was not cranking enough when it is cold compared to the old Honda battery, and it is triggering the SRS airbag light. I ended up having the shop switch out the new battery to an AC Delco 51R6YR (500 CCA). Unfortunately, however, it did not fix the problem.
I can’t get past the fact that if it was a defective SRS unit, why would it only cause a problem for the first few minutes when it is cold, and then consistently be fine after that? Any suggestions other than having it replaced?
Thanks much for any help!
It is not at all out of the norm for electronic equipment to be temperature dependant as to when they display a fault.
Agreed. Every car has its quirks, and this is yours. Fortunately it is quite minor.
My car has a similar quirk with the ABS. Every so often the light will come on but an immediate engine-off and restart fixes the problem.
It is generally easiest just to live with such quirks rather than spend a small fortune on repairs.
"It is generally easiest just to live with such quirks rather than spend a small fortune on repairs. "
I’d agree. This is something that I would actually live with.
However, I’d also say that you should get the actual error code and post it here. I don’t know much about airbag system codes off the top of my head. However I seriously doubt that there’s a code that tells you that the computer is bad. This was probably a guess. So see if you can get the actual code and post it. Many mechanics tend to be a little sloppy about what to do in response to error codes.