Team 987,
I got side swiped about 6 weeks ago... While I was waiting for insurance to figure out who was going to pay for it (the guy who hit me ended up paying) my CS sat in my garage for about a month. Went to fire it up to take it in for repairs... Not enough juice to start it.
Jumped it, drove around for 20 minutes before I dropped it at the shop. (Everything was covered by the other drivers insurance, otherwise I would have had them replace the
battery
right then. I also thought maybe it hadn't been charged in so long that I just needed to run it about...)
When I picked it up the car looked great (nothing mechanical, all cosmetics) but they needed to jump it for me to leave. I drove it around for half an hour before I got home. Turned it off, and tried to fire it up. Not enough juice.
Jumped it today to go get the
battery
replaced, and the airbag light was on. Figured I would replace the
battery
and that would solve the issue.
Battery
is in, car runs great, but the light is still on. Now what? All suggestions appreciated.
-JP
If the
battery
goes dead for long enough, the air bag indicator will be triggered and remain on until it is reset using software. When I ran down the
battery
in my '06 CS, neither of my code readers would reset the indicator so a trip to the dealership was needed.
I've changed out weak batteries, never triggering the air bag light, but letting the car sit for several days with the key only inserted in the ignition switch will drain the
battery
and require a reset.
I suppose a very weak but not totally dead
battery
could get the very complex safety electronics confused. As said above, once that gets into a bad state, it won't reset without intervention. I used my Durametric Enthusiast cable to clear it.
Another possibility is that the someone at the service center moved the passenger seat (or seat back) so far back that it is pressed against the cabin firewall. This can confuse the sensors that detect whether a passenger is seated (whether or not to disarm the passenger-side airbags). If so, just move the seat forward a little and see if the light goes off.
Another possibility is that some repair work disturbed some SRS sensor. I assume your car was side-wiped on the driver side. It could be that the seat belt tensioner circuit got disconnected.
If your car is equipped with a key-operated airbag deactivation switch (see owner's manual) in the passenger door frame, it might be turned to the OFF position.
The dealership ran a diagnostic on my car before resetting the air bag indicator. Quoting from memory, the result was something like the data link was lost due to power failure.
There may be a capacitor connected to the power bus that allows the battery to be removed and replaced without disruption to certain electronic systems. The two times I changed the Cayman's battery, there was a period of maybe five or ten minutes before re-connection and the air bag indicator was not triggered by that. I don't know how much delay that the car will tolerate. Probably not a good idea to go on a break before completing installation the new battery.
The stability control indicator always shows a fault condition if the battery is briefly disconnected but that will clear after the car is driven for a short while with some braking activity.
I recently gave myself an airbag light during my SSK/cable install. I was able to read and reset it with the
iCarsoft POR v2.0
. At $145, it's a little less than the hour of labor the dealer will charge you for the same.
Can't promise it's the same issue, but it's a relatively cheap fix if you don't have a friendly dealer or durametric handy.
True true; when mine went dead I jumped the fuse panel to open the frunk then left the charger on until it was fully charged and didn't have any light problems.
Thanks for all the replies. I tried to seat, but that wasn't it. I need to take it in for service soon enough anyway, so I'll have my shop figure it out then. Thanks again!
-JP
