|
|
airbag light This forum post has messages dated from 06/09/08 through 05/16/11, please be sure to read all the messages. If you feel it is old or outdated, please follow up with a question or comment and someone may be able to update it, or reply with newer information if you have it. - Ford-Escape
• Page 1 (Original Post) • Page 2 (Newest Replies) •
| airbag light What can it mean when the airbag light came on in my 2004 Ford Escape?I'm worried sick as I have only 10 miles left on my original 75, 000 mile warranty. And if the light decides to come on after the diagonistic work is done when I'm going home after being told nothing is wrong!!!! Pressured by being out of work and the dealership service department is not necessarily truthful with me. |
| I have a 2004 Escape XLS. Last weekend I went for a trip to Montreal, and wala, I joined the airbag light club! lol! Many people if not every Escape owner have the same problem. It was flashing the error 47 (not sure what that means!). I did have my girlfriend in the passenger side adjusting the seat. After I read everything in many forums, that got me thinking... I looked under the passenger seat and saw the airbag switch. I moved the switch and wires around. I started the car, and the light hasn't come on again!!!! Before I tried this, I called a FORD dealer and they wanted to charge me CAD$106 just to check the fault light, not even to fix it. If you get error 46 or 47, don't go to get it check in the dealer before you try moving the wires under the seats. FORD dealers are ripoffs sometimes, they just want your money for nothing. The wires under the seat are for the airbag sensor, so the car knows when someone is seated there. The problem is that those wires are too short, so if you move the seat too much to the front or back, they may may get disconnect. |
#207/14/08 18:30John Morris | All modern ford vehicles have a similar with their air bag, horn and speed control wires when they go thru the steering column to a steering wheel connection. There are connection wires that work thru a clock spring arrangement, the wires are a ribbon cable and wound up like a wind up clock. This cable winds and un-winds with your steering and over time will break internally or act odd at times with a connection that is no longer positive. My experience has been to change the clock spring mechanism, old to new, to solve the problem. Don't do like I did and buy a ford car/truck with a disconnected air bag and have an accident. My bag didn't work and I broke my left arm in 2 places, both bones, and was in a cast for 3 months. I still wear a Cervical Halo to keep my neck from moving around. Have your air bag fixed as soon as it goes out. It will probably be just the wiring on the clock spring. |
| I have the same problem with light staying on. I to have move the wires under the seat and it stayed off for a few months. Then came on again. |
#404/30/09 23:55pumpkinescobar | I had the 2002 Escape XLS and I had the exact same problem with the airbag light going on. And it is true, all you need to do is fiddle with the plug underneath the driver seat. Unplug it, and clean out the metal prongs and reconnect. The light should go off. My light did come back on after about 6 months or so, but all I did was disconnect the plug again and clean it once again. This time I actual bent the prongs just a tad bit for better contact. The light never came back on after that. |
| I have a 05 explorer sportrac with this problem. the first flashing airbag code indicator was 34. Then I disconnected the cable under the drivers seat as described in previous post above and the light went out for a brief while. then it returned with a new code sequence of # 42. I'm not sure what this code # means ..can anyone tell me? where can I find out this information. I'm trying to determine if it's a sensor that's accessible and that I can replace myself. |
#607/06/09 12:41DaLee Esposito | My airbag light is on as well, i just got back from my car repair shop and they are telling me $533.00 plus tax to fix. I think I will try to clean it myself Thanxs for the tips.. I hate people who try to rip us off, esp. now days........Hukuna Matah...means no worries... |
#707/15/09 15:24Bob Wallace | I joined the club about a week ago. I'm getting a series of four flashes seven times in a row, then the light stays on. I can sometimes get though a drive cycle without it coming on, usually not. Does anybody know how to interpret the flashes without going to the dealer? |
#809/15/09 00:00Oleg M (Lego) | I got same problem on my 2002 Ford Escape XLS- four flashes + seven = after stays on.....it started when I just got it 2 years ago....I noticed it start usually in hot summer (who knows)....and some time goes off when I give my wife to drive.... |
| I found this list of airbag warning light codes. A flashing airbag light can mean one of two things. The first possibility is that your battery is in death throes. Have it tested at your local auto parts store. The second possibility is that there is an actual problem with the airbag system. Below is a list of airbag codes, which will flash on the warning light. For example, the light will flash once, pause and then flash twice == 12. 12=Low Battery Voltage 13=Air Bag Circuit Shorted to Ground 14=Primary Crash Sensor Circuit Shorted to Ground 21=Safing Sensor Not Mounted to Vehicle Properly 22=Safing Sensor Output Shorted to Battery Voltage 23=Safing Sensor Circuit Input Feed/Return Circuit Open 24=Safing Sensor Output Feed/Return Circuit Open 32=Driver Side Air Bag Circuit High Resistance or Open 33=Passenger Side Air Bag Circuit High Resistance or Open 34=Driver Side Air Bag Circuit Low Resistance or Shorted 35=Passenger Side Air Bag Circuit Low Resistance or Shorted 41=RH Primary Crash Sensor Feed/Return Circuit Open 42=LH Primary Crash Sensor Feed/Return Circuit Open 44=RH Primary Crash Sensor Not Mounted to Vehicle Properly 45=LH Primary Crash Sensor Not Mounted to Vehicle Properly 51=Air Bag Diagnostic Monitor Internal Thermal FuseFuse Blown Due to Intermittent Short to Ground 52=Backup Power SupplyVoltage Boost Fault 53=Primary Crash Sensor Circuits Resistance to Ground or Air Bag Diagnostic Fault |
#1009/24/09 11:50Peter Falvo | It seems that the Ford sickness has spilled over to the Volvo since they are part owners. We bought a new Volvo four years ago I’ve been treating it with kid gloves no problems up to now until the warranty ran out, just last week we had a messesag saying that the driver side air bag system was faulty and needed to be serviced, so we brought it to the dealer they did a system check and discovered that the airbag sensor was faulty. Since our warranty ran out, to replace the sensor would cost close to a thousand dollars to fix, how can a company like Volvo that prides itself on safety not inspect the higher quality of these parts? The problem that we have with the car industry is that there is no quality control anymore they buy cheap parts from manufactures which fail miserably so that they can make a higher profit and no one is accountable for anything except for the consumer who now has to fork out thousands of dollars to pay for the fixes. If the airplane industry had the same quality control they would be falling out of the sky every ten minutes. |
| I noticed that the code list does not have code 46 on there. i dont want to take it to the dealership to check because that would cost a pretty penny just to check it. does anyone know any home remedies? |
#1210/07/09 17:23MarkinPA | I have a 2004 Ford Escape. I was getting the code 3-6. My dealer said it would cost $550 to install a harness (the warranty has expired). I read about the disconnect/reconnect on here; so this is what I did, and the light has not come back on. Should I still have the harness installed? Is my car safe?? |
| Check for Ford TSB's. There was one for a updated connector under the seat from the switch to harness. |
| I, also have the problem with the air bag light on my '05 Taurus. I will try the tip to readjust the air bag switch under the seat. My question is what's with these code numbers? Do they show up on the dash or what? Thanks. |
| Hello, I have a 2001 Ranger, and my air-bag light is not coming on at all! I'm not sure why, but the dash bulb is not out. Anyone have an idea why it would not be coming on anymore? thanks! |
| What is the point of a driver side seat sensor anyways?? seems the ignition switch is the only driver side switch needed. |
| Hi, I had issues a few months back, and they were completely fixed with a new alternator. Apparently the low voltage in the battery because of the alternator failing caused the airbag module to get confused. It went on for several weeks, and I kept trying things like cleaning the under seat connections. I only go a few miles each way to work, and thats all we really use the Escape for, and it was at a time of year when it was light out both ways, and I didn't need the AC, and I'm assuming the alternator was still charging some, just not as much as it should, which is what dragged out the duration. My dealer was nice enough to read the codes for me for free. I forget the #s, but it was the crash sensor on both the left and the right, and also a low voltage code. Neither I nor the technician tied the low voltage code to the airbag codes, but that was obviously what was causing the issue. A week or so later I puttered to a stop on the side of the road with a completely dead battery. The battery wasn't that old, so I brought that to the shop and did a warranty swap, dropped the new battery in the car, and drove it in for a new alternator. At no point, prior to the engine actually stopping, did the Low Voltage light ever come on. I did notice it crank a little slow a few times, enough for me to be testing the battery periodically through this whole experience. Before replacing the battery and alternator, the battery would test, at the very best, at the bottom of the green, around 75% on my inexpensive meter. Under normal circumstances it would be right at 100%. In Summary - make sure your voltage is ok before you go digging at the airbag components. |
| "What is the point of a driver side seat sensor anyways?? seems the ignition switch is the only driver side switch needed." I know the passenger side ones are weight sensitive, under a certain weight in the seat and they don't go off. I suppose the same would apply to the drivers side as well. |
| Thiago's advice about the plug under the seat works! I have had this airbag light problem intermittently over the last year and a half. Drove me nuts having that light all of a sudden come on one day, then 3 months later it would go off! I just went out to my cra, split apart the connector under the passenger seat, blew it out, and reconnected it.....started my car, left it running for 5 minutes and guess what!!! NO AIR BAG LIGHT!!!! Thank you so much!!!! |
| My air bag light comes on and the dealer said replace it. My question is - does it affect the way the car runs? He said no, it is a safety issue. Is it a law that we have to have the air bags?? Will my car insurance pay if I should, heaven forbird, have a wreck and the air bar does not deploy? Am I liable for any more damage if I have a passenger and have a fender bender and the passenger is injured because the air bag did not deploy? Dealer wants $400 - had to order the sensor from Atlanta and I have to take a half day off work to have the thing put in. Is this reasonable? I should would like to know soon. Air bag sensor replacement is scheduled for tomorrow! Thanks. |
| My 2002 Escape had the same airbag light problem. Initially it occured while under warranty and the dealer fixed it. It happened a second time under warranty and it was fixed again. It reoccured after the warranty expired and I just ignored it. Now that my son will be using the car for college I wanted to get it fixed. The dealer was going to charge me $95 just to diagnose the problem. I learned through this forum about the yellow wire under the passenger seat. I disconnected it and sprayed both ends with an electrical connection cleaner and reconnected it. The result- the airbag light is now off! It cost me $6.43 for the cleaner and about 15 minutes of my time. If it reoccurs (which is probably likely given my previous experience)I'll just do it again. |
#2207/09/10 14:42Sandy Huffman | mY 2004 ESCAPE HAS BEEN AT FORD GARAGE 10 X FOR AIRBAG LITE . HAD NEW WIRING NEW SENSOR STILL COMES ON BACK AGAIN .FORD WERE THE RECALL ON THIS ALL , WE HAVE TO WHAT TILL SOMEONE GET KILLED |
| When a 2001 - 2004 Ford Escape air bag light flashes code 36, one of four problems could exist in the circuit from the Restraints Control Module (RCM) to the left side air bag (the side air bag in the seat, not the main air bag in the steering wheel): 1. DTC B1992 - Left side air bag circuit short to battery or ignition 2. DTC B1993 - Left side air bag circuit short to ground 3. DTC B1994 - Left side air bag circuit resistance high 4. DTC B1995 - Left side air bag circuit resistance low In order to determine which of the four Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC) exist, you will probably have to have the codes scanned at a repair shop. Most trouble code scanners available to the DIY mechanic only scan for powertrain codes. It is likely that you have code B1994 (left side air bag circuit high resistance) since Ford has issued a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) for this code. The same service bulletin applies to code B1998 (same problem, right side air bag). The TSB states that this problem can be caused by a variation in electrical continuity at the electrical connector to the side air bag. The connector is located under the seat. Ford makes a replacement body harness pigtail connector (Ford part number 1L8Z-14A411-A) to fix this problem. I had the same air bag trouble code 36 flashing intermittently on my 2004 Ford Escape which I bought used. In my case, I discovered that a Ford dealer had already replaced the pigtail connectors on both the left and right side air bags. Using my multimeter, I found high resistance in one of the pigtail splices that was made by the repair shop. They had just twisted the wires together and then sealed the connection with heat shrink tubing. I fixed it by making a solder splice and sealing the splice with heat shrink tubing. You can identify the replacement body harness pigtail connectors because the wire color code is a bit different than the original. The replacement pigtail connectors have one WHT/LT BLU wire and one WHT/YEL wire (same replacement pigtail connector for both left and right). The original wire colors are: Left - RED and WHT/LT BLU Right - BRN/YEL and WHT/YEL The side air bag connectors are located under the seat (driver or passenger). The wiring from either of these connectors goes directly to the RCM which is located under the center of the dash. The RCM is bolted to the transmission tunnel. There are two electrical connectors on the module. The side air bag wires are located in the smaller connector and can be identified by color code as described above. When you remove the electrical connector from the RCM, each pair of wires going to the side air bags are shorted together in the connector (safety feature to prevent accidental deployment of the side air bags). With the RCM connector removed, you can unplug the connector under the seat and place your ohmmeter across the two terminals located in the body harness side. There should be less than 1 ohm resistance. In my case, I found anywhere from about 0.5 ohms to around 65 ohms as I moved the wires around. If all Ford dealers make the repair by just twisting the wires of the replacement pigtail connector together, I would imagine that there are a lot of folks out there experiencing this same problem intermittently. |
| airbag light comes on, have replaced control module and both side crash sensors, but still comes on. what next to look at?? please help |
Reply Options Share your opinions, advice, questions or comments on this post. | Be Heard: Forum reply options: We encourage everyone to share their opinions, comments, thoughts and information, please consider sharing... Please register or login in to reply to this post: It is quick, easy and offers many advantages when using our site. |
Social NetworkingShare this with your friends on facebook, twitter and Google+ | | Social sharing because it feels good:
| |
|
RelatedSome related posts that may be of interest to you. | Related posts: Related posts on other sites: Related eBooks: |
• Page 1 (Original Post) • Page 2 (Newest Replies) •
|
