air bag light on

[bhs91]

The air bag Light is on in my 2005 Dodge Caravan (55,000 miles). It came on yesterday after I changed the oil in it yesterday. I tried to disconnect the battery to see if that would get rid of it, but it came back on. Any suggestions from anyone?

Thanks,

BHS

[Jeremy airjer W]

Check to see if your cruise control and/or horn still works. If either or both also don't work I would suspect that the clock spring is the source of the problem. These are very common in the minivans.

[bhs91]

10-4 will check tonight and let you know.

Thanks BHS

[uglystick007]

Check your fuses. I had an older minivan and the air bag fuse was corroded because moisture was getting into the fuse box.

[bhs91]

Both the horn and cruise still work. Is there anything else that I can check?

Thanks,

BHS

[MattWtech]

depends on the code, sometimes the codes are correlation codes and actually require you to replace the mechanism. that all depends on the code though,

hey if you end up replacing the unit, keep the old one those are fun to blow off, grab a 9 volt battery, couple of 10ft cables, put it face down and shoot them 50 ft in the air haha be careful though , airbags inflate AND deflate in .4 seconds

[cableguy031]

My father has the same type of van you have and he has the same type of problem until I went to town on the electrical system.

It turns out that there is a short between the rear wiper and the wire for the air bag light. Every time the rear wipers were used, the air bag light would come on within a few minutes. After tracing all the wires, I found that the wires crossed underneath so they touched causing a short.

Replacing the fuse won't solve your problem, go get someone who knows automotive electrical system to fix it. It shouldn't cost you more than a case of Heineken or Miller Lite. Hope that helps.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Not much you can do now until you scan the airbag module for codes!

[Cheeser]

If you want to clear the codes out of a Dodge/Chrysler vehicle, you have to leave the battery disconnected overnight. If you just disconnect the battery for say an hour, it will still retain them.

--Mark

[bhs91]

Thanks for the information guys. I will try the overnight thing tonight, but do have an appointment next week to get it looked at.

Thanks,

BHS

[bhs91]

I brought in my 2005 van with the light still on and they told me that the sensors are corroted??? $205 to get fixed. Are these that vital? Does $205, parts, and labor sound OK?

Thanks,

BHS

[Capt. Don*]

They are only vital to the operation of the airbag system, without them the system won't work(collision = no air bags). If it were a '95 I'd say let it go providing the saftey system isn't important to you, but it's 3 years old, it still has some value, I think a couple hundred bucks is money well spent. If you went to sell it tomorrow you would get the $200 back in resale.