[lucasland]

Many people have issues with the damn airbag light always coming on and beeping. It's enough to drive you mad. Many say it's the clock spring. Well, my dealer is fixing the problem now. The problem is something I have not read anywhere regarding this issue.

In my van the light keeps coming on cause there is a short in the wiring for the driver's side seat belt. The wiring is underneath the seat in the floor. For them to fix it they have to take out the entire seat to get to the wiring. The total cost to diagnose and fix was $477. Thankfully I still have an extended warranty

 

[LEVY]

Your problem is not solved yet.

You should've waited until you get your vehicle back and tested. I don't believe a short in the seat belt system should trigger the air bag light, seat belt light should be on instead.

Maybe you never read of this solution before because is not.

Anyways, keep us posted, I'm really interested on this solution, I work on special seating, often disconnect seatbelt wiring during testing, never had a air bag light on, been on this business for 15 years.

 

[alloriginal]

Your problem is not solved yet.

You should've waited until you get your vehicle back and tested. I don't believe a short in the seat belt system should trigger the air bag light, seat belt light should be on instead.

Maybe you never read of this solution before because is not.

Anyways, keep us posted, I'm really interested on this solution, I work on special seating, often disconnect seatbelt wiring during testing, never had a air bag light on, been on this business for 15 years.

You MAY want to do a little reading on this subject before you put your foot in my mouth any further.
No offence.
exhibit A) How Occupant Classification Systems Work

PS: remember many members like the OP aren't special trained people like you and "seatbelt system" to me and likely him is anything plugged into that seat...

 

[steffen.m]

I had the same problem 2 years ago. The airbag lamp shone. The cause was the yellow 4-pin connector under the driver seat. He has poor connections.

Two pins of the plug go to belt buckle from the seat belt and two pins go to the belt tensioner. When a cable is disconnected or has a high resistance, then the airbag lamp turns on. I have cleaned the contacts. The airbag lamp went out by itself. The error did not come back after that.

 

[alloriginal]

Can't argue with 2 real live cases can you?
Especially Steffin......

 

[LEVY]

Can't argue with 2 real live cases can you?
Especially Steffin......

OK, It is tied to the seat belt harness, but it is actually part of the air bag system. I read it wrong. The seat belt pre-tensioner is actually part of the air bag system, it can not be engaged unless the air bag deploys at the same time (or very, very close to same time).

 

[LEVY]

You MAY want to do a little reading on this subject before you put your foot in my mouth any further.
No offence.
exhibit A)
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/ocs1.htm

PS: remember many members like the OP aren't special trained people like you and "seatbelt system" to me and likely him is anything plugged into that seat...

I asked the OP to keep us posted because if it was indeed part of the seat belt system I wanted to know, evidently it wasn't.

And yes, I'm one of the "few" NHTSA approved to modify seating, including removal of in-seat airbags and seatbelts. No dealer will ever disable an air bag or move a seat belt from one position to a different one, they are not allowed by NHTSA, I am.

I wouldn't state the problem was solved because a dealer told me they found the problem I would wait untill they actually fixed it.

Any ways, yes that harness could be the problem, as well as any other with a "yellow" wire or connector.

 

[LEVY]

I had the same problem 2 years ago. The airbag lamp shone. The cause was the yellow 4-pin connector under the driver seat. He has poor connections.





Two pins of the plug go to belt buckle from the seat belt and two pins go to the belt tensioner. When a cable is disconnected or has a high resistance, then the airbag lamp turns on. I have cleaned the contacts. The airbag lamp went out by itself. The error did not come back after that.

I believe it is very unlikely for a connector from the air bag system to fail like it failed on your vehicle, if it hasn't been touched after it left the factory, but it may happen. We often have a hard time properly removing those connectors but, being under the seat, liquid may find it's way to this connector, causing corrosion.

 

[RIP]

Actually this happens more often than one might think. Seat belt pretentionmers are one of the go to points anytime there's an airbag light. Body codes are predominately dedicated to the safety restrain systems and many are dedicated to pretentioners.

 

[lucasland]

thank you to the others who backed up my claim. Im not a mechanic so i have no choice but to believe the dealer. I drove the van all day yesterday and it never came on. Since i have an extended warranty it only cost me $100.

 

[LEVY]

....... light keeps coming on cause there is a short in the wiring for the drivers side seat belt........

thank you to the others who backed up my claim. Im not a mechanic so i have no choice but to believe the dealer. I drove the van all day yesterday and it never came on. Since i have an extended warranty it only cost me $100.

Glad you got your problem fixed.

Is not that I didn't believed you, is just that I could not believe it would be the "seat belt" wiring. The problem is, I often work with air bag system, for us, the seat belt pre-tensioner is part of the air bag system and not a part of the seat belt system as it may appear. I could not believe your dealer, not you.

Anyways, glad you got rid of that annoyance.

 

[ChryslerCares]

Very glad to hear your concern has been resolved!

 

[DickB]

I had the same problem 2 years ago. The airbag lamp shone. The cause was the yellow 4-pin connector under the driver seat. He has poor connections.





Two pins of the plug go to belt buckle from the seat belt and two pins go to the belt tensioner. When a cable is disconnected or has a high resistance, then the airbag lamp turns on. I have cleaned the contacts. The airbag lamp went out by itself. The error did not come back after that.

I believe that I have the same problem. 2006 T&C Limited. Airbag light came on and I took it to a dealer. Tech diagnosed drivers seat belt tensioner, but when he tested it unplugging and plugging the connector the problem went away. It came back after a couple weeks.

I could see how dirty contacts could cause this. My understanding is that the squibb resistance is only a couple of ohms, so a dirty connector could look like a fault. I would like to give this a try, as the dealer wants $500 to replace the tensioner.

The service manual instructs to disconnect the battery and wait 2 minutes before disconnecting the tensioner, and to use a scan tool BEFORE reconnecting the battery. This seems unnecessary to me, because and open or short in the tensioner circuit surely would not trigger the airbag.

Dic you disconnect the battery or do anything special when cleaning the tensioner contacts?

 

[steffen.m]

Yes, disconnect the battery (-) and wait 2 minutes before you begin

 

[DickB]

I checked resistance of the tensioner and it was about one ohm. Sprayed some contact cleaner on both connectors and plugged it back in. Light is off for now, we'll see.

BTW I did not bother to disconnect the battery.

 

[dmr]

Me too!

2 years after I bought my 2012 Town & Country I had the same problem. The dealer said the wires under my seat were frayed that it must have been done by my pet (don't have a pet). They fixed it under the warrantee but now it's happening again. Something must have happened to the wires under my drivers seat again. Guess it's time to go back to the dealer only this time not under warrantee. :-(

 

[allan borg]

I recently bought a 2008 Grand caravan with some serious issues but knew I was going to be doing some work to get it in good shape. the instrument lights showed 1,the airbag light always on, 2 the ESP/BAS light on. The electric doors and their windows were non functioning, OK the fuse fixed one of the doors but the right door still dead. Turned out that the wiring harness was removed for some un explained reason. I bought a replacement harness and just reconnected the front connector today, a couple of tries and it finally functioned perfectly. I had to take the vehicle for an errand and lo and behold no more airbag light. I suspect that was the problem all along. I have no idea if the sliding doors are airbag equipped but if it helps someone else to check for this area it might just fix the problem.

 

[lancia_voy_user]

Could someone please update the picture, of that connector?

 

[steffen.m]

is updated

 

[Hans Ismail]

Our 2015 Dodge Caravan first had the Air Bag light coming on and off while driving. This is one owner Van and never had water or any damage. Then it stays on all the time and an alarm bell rand about each minute or so. Got very annoying and almost ended up buying ODB2 and Air Bag sensor, etc.
Thanks to this post by Stefan I saved a lot of Bucks and was a simple fix...
I played around with the 2 Yellow Connectors under the Drivers side seat, not sure which was the Air Bag Connector. I found in one of the Yellow Connectors the Red Tab (shown on the picture was up all the way. I pushed this Red Tab with a Flat screw driver and it Clicked.
I started the Engine and the Airbag light came on for a second and went off....Yay
Thanks Steffen you made my day...

I had the same problem 2 years ago. The airbag lamp shone. The cause was the yellow 4-pin connector under the driver seat. He has poor connections.

Two pins of the plug go to belt buckle from the seat belt and two pins go to the belt tensioner. When a cable is disconnected or has a high resistance, then the airbag lamp turns on. I have cleaned the contacts. The airbag lamp went out by itself. The error did not come back after that.
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