airbag light on 156

[d4gu2000]

my 2001 alpha romeo 156 had the airbag light on .the diagnostic read there was high resistence on the right hand side,drivers.the auto electrician pulled all plugs and cleaned them and reset all codes.2-3 hours later the light is back on

[dugan50]

I would guess the clockspring is beginning to break causing you these problems.
Although you have a right hand drive vehicle, the answers are still the same.
The clockspring is a ribbon wire that is coiled up inside the steering column. This component is the subject of many discussions on these threads. Many times the steering wheel or column is disconnected and then rotated beyond the center position it is required to be in. This will cause the clockspring wire to break. The clockspring delivers current to all of the systems above it… the airbag, cruise control and horn. When it fails (and they do a lot) the wire breaks leaving one or all of the circuits open and inoperative. This will cause the airbag light to come on and shut down the airbag system. As long as that light is on, the airbags will NOT deploy, even in an accident. Sometimes it’s intermittent as the wire begins to break. Once it breaks completely, the ‘airbag’ light will illuminate.
This was a factory recall for many vehicles and many customers are unaware of that.
Check out this site for information on researching your own vehicle for factory recalls!!!
http://www.airbagsolutions.com/nhtsa.aspx
…or contact your local dealer and they will accommodate the replacement for you.
Check out these web pages for a more complete description:

http://www.airbagsolutions.com
http://www.airbagsolutions.com/docs/Clockspring.pdf
http://www.airbagsolutions.com/resources.aspx

[d4gu2000]

thanks for the reply.would this still be the problem even though the diagnostic states there is high resistance on the curtain side.many thanks

[dugan50]

No.
Stick with the diagnostic results. My response was simply a guess based on your previous post. If the resistance is high in the curtain circuit, then it is NOT in the clockspring. Sorry for the confusion

[forzaslav]

My airbag light came on when I was changing the speedometer bulbs, don't know why but it just did, now I got to put money and effort to turn that thing off