airbag sensor

[framemaker]

Hello: I'm new to the forum and not sure if this is the right board to ask. If not please direct me to the right chat forum.
I have a 2005 Prius and love the car. Have had no problems for 46K but a red warning light of a figure sitting in a chair with a red ball appeared. The manual and dealer have told me it's an airbag warning and needs to be seen asap.
Has anyone had the problem? Do the airbags have a longer warranty than the standard 3/36? If not a warranty issue, about how much can it run? Can the sensor be replaced by me or does the dealer need to do it. Thanks for any help.
Framemaker

[northwichita]

I believe that airbag warning light shows the system to be turned off, (I saw this on a diagnostic chart, not positive about it because it doesn't make sense to me). Anyway somewhere during startup, an incorrect value was detected from one/or more of the airbags in your car. How many airbags does your car have? For you or anyone troubleshooting this, I've found a 2 Ohm resistor will make the car seat airbag wire give a 'normal value' for the computer- I changed seats in my car and wanted to keep the airbag system functional, placing a resistor on the ECU side of the airbag connection. I suppose you could start placing in those resistor's everywhere there is an airbag with that yellow connection, and starting the car to test/ eliminate problem areas. . Just no voltage/Ohm testing of those wires, reading up on these systems is a very good idea. I wonder how good the dealership diagnostics are in pinpointing a problem like this.

[Huntceet]

A faulty airbag may not be the cause. The light could be turned on if there's a fault in one of the crash sensors or a fault in the air bag control module among other things. You need to hook up a scanner and pull a DTC from the airbag control module as a first step. Probably best to leave SRS repairs to a professional.

Rod

[GVergara]

The same thing appeared on my dash yesterday.
How big of a problem could this be? is it a sensor thing? or a major malfunction?
Thanks for any advice you can give.

[firepa63]

Originally Posted by GVergara

The same thing appeared on my dash yesterday.
How big of a problem could this be? is it a sensor thing? or a major malfunction?
Thanks for any advice you can give.

Lets put it this way, don't offer me a ride in your car! Any airbag problem should be taken to the dealer asap. It's an important safety device.

[scapgirl]

Originally Posted by framemaker

Hello: I'm new to the forum and not sure if this is the right board to ask. If not please direct me to the right chat forum.
I have a 2005 Prius and love the car. Have had no problems for 46K but a red warning light of a figure sitting in a chair with a red ball appeared. The manual and dealer have told me it's an airbag warning and needs to be seen asap.
Has anyone had the problem? Do the airbags have a longer warranty than the standard 3/36? If not a warranty issue, about how much can it run? Can the sensor be replaced by me or does the dealer need to do it. Thanks for any help.
Framemaker

My 2005 Prius had the same problem. Believe it or not, the dealer couldn't initially find the problem until they discovered a dead mouse in my cabin filter. That was cleaned out and the light went off. However, it's now back on again. The dealer insists they want to remove the entire dashboard to determine whether or not the mouse chewed any wires. That's gonna be expensive? Anyone else with this prorblem?

[fgoodyear]

My son backed into a post and the airbag light kicked on. The aairbag system is inoperable while this light is on. I had to take it to the dealer, as they are the only ones that have the computer that is able to shut the light off. All they did was hook it to the OBDII connection and cleared the code and all was well..... but they may try to charge you a hours labor for 5 minutes of work. I argued that with my dealer and they didn't charge me, even though mine was out of warranty,

[2009Prius]

Originally Posted by fgoodyear

... All they did was hook it to the OBDII connection and cleared the code and all was well..... but they may try to charge you a hours labor for 5 minutes of work. I argued that with my dealer and they didn't charge me, even though mine was out of warranty,

How did you find out what they did and more importantly, could you elaborate on how exactly you argued with the dealer to void the one hour charge? Thanks!

[fgoodyear]

I argued mainly in that I outlined to them the procedure for checking the code and how long it took and how simple it was to do. I let them know I knew what I was talking about and that I was a good customer in that I had bought 3 new cars from them and sent a friend in that bought a loaded Tacoma. I also told them to do what they could do for an hours labor if they were going to charge me for it. Clear the code and stop right then and let me know immediatley what it was since I was waiting for the car. He came and got me 10 minutes later and said that it was ready and in the lot.... and see you later....uhh no charge.

There is another post where it happened to someone under warranty and it took about 10 minutes and it was done. It is a very SMALL deal for them to do.

Good luck

Frank...