Airbag Reset Proceedure

[flintknapper]

Got the Airbag/SRS light on. I understand the DTC procedure to attempt to 'reset' the light, but need to know if there is any danger of setting off an airbag when using this process?

I know the reset might not be successful, depending upon what 'triggered' the fault light to begin with, but I don't want to set off an airbag if there any danger of doing that.

Thanks in advance,

Flint.

 

[speyrod]

When I did this I tried a couple of times and it didn't reset after taking of the steering wheel to install a leather steering wheel cover. I found I didn't have a good ground and daisy chained aligator clips to the negative post on the battery.... BOOM worked like a charm.

 

[flintknapper]

When I did this I tried a couple of times and it didn't reset after taking of the steering wheel to install a leather steering wheel cover. I found I didn't have a good ground and daisy chained aligator clips to the negative post on the battery.... BOOM worked like a charm.

Worked for me first time

 

[ZachG]

It may take a couple of tries but this does work! For me, the key was getting a good ground connection.

 

[CaptClose]

Thanks all! I did this several times without success, counting one, one thousand, two, two thousand...

Wasn’t until I counted using Mississippi’s that I finally got it to work Lol!

 

[flintknapper]

Thanks all! I did this several times without success, counting one, one thousand, two, two thousand...

Wasn’t until I counted using Mississippi’s that I finally got it to work Lol!

^^^^^^ Southern vehicle. You should have known that.

 

[Gbergma1]

I love this forum, the aforementioned worked!

My spiral cable assembly (clock spring) failed and immediately made my airbag light illuminate. I replaced the broken component with one from a parts vehicle after 2 different China aftermarket parts all did not fit. Do not waste your time with the Chinese garbage on eBay and Amazon, make sure any replacement spiral cable assembly you get has the 6 metal pins for your cruise control.

Exactly as mentioned above, I soldered paper clips to a couple wires long enough to reach the negative battery terminal. Paper clip side was jammed into the DTC. It took me 6 tries to get the correct speed/rhythm of the AB/TC sequence, but low and behold, when I peeked inside at the dash, the light was off.

Sincere thank you to whomever figured this out.

 

[tommymac]

I just did this today on my 80-series but have an extra tip. I placed a mirror so I could see the air bag light while I was grounding the terminals. The light lets you know when you got it right. During the procedure you will see the airbag AND ABS light go on and off but on the 5th step the air bag light will start flashing. As soon as it starts flashing disconnect the ground. here is a picture of how I set up the mirror.

 

[petwhookie]

Adding a “modern” idea on how to see your lights flash.

 

[LINUS]

Adding a “modern” idea on how to see your lights flash.

Good idea / have one of those similar tripods.

—— Wheel leather recovered?
— If so, did you use the place in TX or some other vendor?
— In - hand review of the work & quality?

 

[canman]

I’m going to have to give this a try since my light has been on ever since I had to take apart my dash to fix some rust around the windshield. I guess I set off the light when I disconnected the PS airbag.

 

[roflbox]

I was able to successfully reset mine on my LX-450.
On the last contact of TC to ground, instead of 5 seconds, I did 20 (arbitrarily) that fixed it on the first go, after ~10 attempts the night before using just 5 seconds (I even tried 5 counts of Mississippi).

 

[Treyster]

CEL is back on today. I'll get it evenutally though.

Here's the Airbag reset proceedure as per CharlieS from about 2 1/2 years ago.

CharlieS:
Hi All. Quick update.

I was able to read the SRS DTC codes, here's the procedure:

1) Turn ignition to on or acc for 20 seconds
2) Using SST (paperclip) jump terminals Tc and E1 of the diagnostic connector (DLC1)
3) Read code(s) by counting flashes of abs light (while ignoring all the other flashing lights)

Codes are gathered by counting flashes, 1.5 seconds between digits, 4 seconds between individual codes. If you miss it, keep waiting, it will cycle again.

Mine was a 54 (Open in P squib circuit) which corresponds to the passenger airbag being disconnected.

I reset the codes and all is well.

Incidentally, the reset Darwood posted works. However it doesn't work if the wires you are using do not have contiuity ( ). I checked my "reset" SST with my multimeter and found that I had a break in my wires. Fixed it and was able to reset it.

Briefly, for the archive:

1) Get two separate longish wires (another SST!)
2) At the DTC put one wire in the Tc terminal and one in the AB terminal
3) Turn the ignition to on or acc for 6 seconds (leave it in on or acc)
4) Go to the wires in the DTC and do the following
a) Tc to ground for 1 second, remove
b) AB to ground for 1 second, remove
c) Tc to ground for 1 second, remove
d) AB to ground for 1 second, remove
e) Tc to ground for several seconds (5 according to the FSM)
5) ABS light should flash rapidly and reset

That reset the codes.

Note, as Darwood says, you need to switch the wires quicky (.2 seconds?) but that is easy to do.

By the time I got to the drivers side my ABS light was off.

Also, make sure your SST (wires) have continuity or this won't work.

The dealer wanted $35 just to read the codes. Then they couldn't
find the "special connector" anywhere. I should've loaned them my paperclip

Glad I tried again. Thanks everyone!!!!

Good luck.

Charlie

Appreciate this info. I have tried this over and over with no luck. Different wires, different grounds with no luck. I am trying to turn off my airbag light. 80 was in storage for many years.

 

[Kernal]

Any mechanic with a Pro level diagnostic tool can probably turn the light off for you but of course will charge you for it. There are some lower priced scan/diagnostic tools that may be able to reset the SRS light. AFAIK the cause of the light coming is when the SRS computer doesn't have power for weeks, months,--- that apparently sets the code.

FWIW and repeating from page one, after the wires were hooked up and a bolt head was slightly sanded to get good ground contact point, is that extremely rapid switching of the wires when touching the ground with no pause in-between (even though most directions say wait one second) worked for me.

 

[UTslick68]

Just thought I'd throw in my two cents since I've been trying to get my airbag light off for the last 2 days straight.

After at least two and a half dozen tries of trying to follow the FSM procedure to the letter, especially in terms of time, No luck. After going to the process, It would just continue to flash the number "14" code I had.

I finally got really frustrated and did the entire five-step procedure as quickly as I humanly could. (Tc, Ab, Tc, Ab, Tc (hold)) All of that inside of two seconds total. After about 10 seconds of leaving it on Tc, the airbag light started flashing like a madman and that's it signal that it's cleared the code. Job done.

We'll see if it comes back, But at least I got to sit in my driveway for 3 minutes and look at a dark dash!

Cheers.

--MG