Airbag Troubleshooting

[vincenzo masiello]

For a while now, I had an intermittent airbag dash light situation. I rattled the connectors under the seat and I “guess” that made some change, but the light is still intermittent. My next step is to remove the front seats so I can get a better access to those connectors, so I can, then, do some inspections and/or multimeter magic after opening the connections (and spraying the connectors leads with some electronic contact cleaner in any case).
The main concern is if there is any chance that disconnecting those connectors or testing sensors may lead to air bags getting accidentally activated!
Does anyone have any idea about what I’m talking about? Is there any chance

Does removing one or both of the battery cables help in any way? or is it a necessity at all?

thanks
(my car is a 2008 grand prix with all the luxury options that were available that year, and has close to 150K miles, and I’m in PA, USA)

Topic

[Mike]

Since doing anything that involves the airbags can be potentially dangerous, IMHO it is 100% necessary to disconnect the battery cables AND to disable the SIR/SRS system before touching anything.
IDK what the procedure is to disable the air bags on your car.
On mine, it is to disconnect the battery cables and remove the SIR fuses.

Personally, if I didn’t have a copy of the factory service manual, I’d check with my library to see if they offer free access or just spend a few dollars to gain access to the online Alldata databases.

The next problem if it isn’t just the underseat wires,is that you most likely have no way to read the codes for hints at what what the issue actually is.
To find out what the codes are for the airbags requires a “better than basic” scan tool, like the OTC 3111 which is advertised as reading the airbag codes.

[vincenzo masiello]

so, what you’re saying, is that, the bags may inflate on their own while you’re driving, simply if an electrical contact becomes dirty/loose over the years? and that’s why you’re terrified all that much from disconnecting that under-seat yellow connector to clean the contacts?
I doubt that the logic in the software for that is this trivial

[Mike]

[quote=”vinnyy” post=189260]so, what you’re saying, is that, the bags may inflate on their own while you’re driving, simply if an electrical contact becomes dirty/loose over the years? and that’s why you’re terrified all that much from disconnecting that under-seat yellow connector to clean the contacts?
I doubt that the logic in the software for that is this trivial[/quote]

Sorry I bothered.

[Author]

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