Air bag light ?????

[mengel1]

have a 97 grand am and the air bag light is always on had a code reader on it and no codes come up (used a good code reader, not one of those cheap ones) anyone have any more information that may help?
thanks

[Hoags]

When the air bag light is on it indicates that the air bags are inoperative. It could be that you have a bad air bag sensor. There are three sensors in the system and it takes two to be activated for the bags to deploy. Unfortunatly, I don't know how to check the sensors but I will take a look at my Haynes manual to see if there is any information. I will look as soon as I can, I have some things going on tonight but I will look tomarrow morning. In the mean time someone else on the Forum may have some more insight.

[mengel1]

Thanks, Since Right Now I'm Stumped On This One,

[Hoags]

I have looked through the Haynes manual, One thing that stands out to me is the following statement: " Do not use electrical test equipment on the SIR (Air Bag) system wiring." More or less the manual seems to be recomending that the Air Bag system should be checked by a professional, and for a manual that can tell you how to tear down and rebuild an engine it's pretty significant that they are saying "leave it to the pros." I would get it checked out by a dealer since their techs have been trained to repair the system, I normally would not say take it to a dealer but I think that since it is such a good protector system that I know saves lives it's worth the extra $$ to be spent to make sure it works properly. The smaller garage mechanics may not have the correct know how to do the job right.

There is a DERM-Diagnostic Energy Reserve Module that supplies current to the systen in the event of a collision even if the battery power is cut off. It seems that this module also stores diagnostic codes that can be recalled by the dealer.

I had a 98 Montana that the Air bag light stayed on all the time, after my wife hit a curb and $2500.00 worth of damage to the engine cradle and front suspension, the body shop thought that they had screwed something up and caused the light to come on. I told them that the light was on prior to the wife's mishap but they took it to a dealer to get it checked out any way, it turned out to be the sensor located back at the firewall. I never had a chance to get it replaced be fore I got rid of the van, so I cant really give you an idea as to the cost of a sensor.

Sorry I got a little long winded there, but I would get it to a dealer to get it checked, if it is a sensor you may be able to pick one up at a salvage yard if the price of a new part.

Sorry I couldn't come up with any self fix-it's for this problem.

Good luck,
Dan

[wafrederick]

Take it to the dealer to check the codes checked.GM's factory scan tool,Tech 2 does a better job retrieving codes than the aftermarket scan tools

[justin0717]

Dont mess with the air bags, unless you know what you are doing. They can and will kill you if you accidently set one off. I know dealerships are expensive, but they have trained personel. as well as the tech 2 like mentioned, with that you can go into the DERM that Hoags mentioned and retrieve the codes that way. A generic code reader will not do that. It usually only does codes dealing with emissions.