Airbag Caution Light

[Piggy791]

Well, I got my first reoccurring electrical hiccup which started a few weeks ago. My airbag light and the accompanying ding has been coming on and off intermittently everytime I drive. Of course, come the day of my appointment at the dealer, the light doesn't come on when I bring it in. They scan it and tell me it did kick a code and say it is an electrical connection under the passenger seat. They say they are all tight and cleared the code. Well a week later, ding!. The warning light and sounds are back. I wonder how many times I'll get to visit the dealer before this one is fixed?

Anyone else have a persistent airbag light?

[1FASTSOFA]

Did you have anything in the passenger seat when that light came on? I heard that if there is something smaller than 40 lbs. in the passenger seat, the air bag is disabled.

Something to do with it not going off in case of a child seat or something.. dang it.. I forget.

It happened to me a few times when I put a bag on the seat, lighter than 40 lbs. when I took it off, turned off the car, re-adjusted the seat.. it went away.

[Piggy791]

Hmm, that makes sense. My light comes on both with my wife in the seat and with the seat completely empty. Sometimes it comes on right after I start the car and sometimes it waits until I get to highway speeds. Sometimes it comes on and goes off and comes back again multiple times during the drive. Sometimes it comes on and stays on, and sometimes it doesn't come on at all.

Maybe it's just fritz and I should get the dealer to start replacing airbag sensors until it stops?

[FleshWound]

I had the passenger side airbag light on, pretty much same conditions you mentioned except when the seat was occupied. Scan showed a negative weight for that seat sensor(load cell). recalibration was all it needed.
hope that's all you'll need

[Tbird100636]

There's been a few people on Charger Forums with Airbag lights on and off intermitently. A few of them mention it was seat wiring related in their particular case. Here's the thread:

2012 Airbag Light intermittently comes on - Dodge Charger Forums

[Piggy791]

Thanks for the link Tbird. Knowledge is power when dealing with the dealer.

[fnkychkn]

did they happen to mention what the code was?

[Vincenzo2487]

I had the same problem with the abs an traction light go to the dealer it's a bad harness and airbag harness my dealer did that and fixed the problem

[Piggy791]

I had the same problem with the abs an traction light go to the dealer it's a bad harness and airbag harness my dealer did that and fixed the problem

thanks for the info. Will be calling the dealer again.

[johnb300m]

Yup, mine's been in the dealer going on the 2nd week now. They won't give it back to me; waiting on the harness part.
An hour after I brought mine in, a 2nd Charger from Hertz came in for the same light.
I guess this problem is getting bigger. My service mgr. said they heard that the factory is aware of it now, they've dispositioned the bad harnesses to scrap and are waiting on the suppliers to refill the supply stream.
They said parts should be in before June 22nd.

In the meantime I've been becoming friends with an underpowered 2.0L 2011 Caliber. Ha!

[BigDaddyR/T]

VW fought the same issues for the longest time... I wonder if they use the same Airbag/ Harness suppliers?


With these modern day CanBus Systems if you look at a sensor cross-eyed it will cry, and tell the PCM to kick the CEL.

[Mopar 11 #417]

I just had to drop mine off this morning for the 2nd time for the airbag light. They moved the sensor the first time, not sure what they're going to do this time. All I know is I want my car back! lol

[johnb300m]

UPDATE: Still don't have my car.
They finally got the part for the airbag wire harness.
But the dealer said they still got a 2nd airbag fault code, and traced it to a 2nd faulty harness.
Feedback has been sporadic from the factory. They know there's a big issue and seem to have difficulty getting good replacement parts in time.
It's looking like they won't get a new 2nd harness till Mid July :/

My dealer's been very helpful at least, and I'm still using one of their loaners.
I'm starting to miss my car.

[Piggy791]

Wow, that sucks to be without YOUR car for such a long time...making big car payments but driving something worth half what you're paying. My dealer did a splice job and hardwired something to bypass a faulty connector. Goodluck.

[johnb300m]

Thanks, yeah it's getting a little old.
I understand how manufacturing works. The dealer's been wonderful. Chrysler's been upfront on info.
They're waiting for new parts from suppliers. Depending on the defect, and any retooling it could be a while.
But c'mon.....I'd like my car.....and yeah I'm making payments on it.

In these circumstances, are there things the financing entity can do? I'm paying for something sitting in a parking lot 15 miles away.....