Airbag light

GREENCHEVYMALIBU

MEMBER
2005 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
89 MILES

Why does my airbag light come on and off?

The light is on every time the driver seat is moved. I noticed if I move the wire loom under the seat the light turns off? Is there an airbag senor in every seat? I was told it could be my clock spring in the steering wheel. Is there a way I can test the spring? Should I have a check engine light stored on my computer? What can I test?

4 Replies

GREENCHEVYMALIBU

MEMBER
230 POSTS

I was told that if the clock spring is at fault that my cruise control wont work. Is that true?

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Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 AT 4:00 AM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

Yup. The clock spring is a wound-up ribbon cable in a plastic housing under the steering wheel. It has circuits for the air bag, horn, and cruise control switches. They don't all break at the same time but as that cable continues to break, eventually all of those functions will stop working.

Based on your observation about the harness under the seat, it's more likely there's a bad connection in one of the plugs. Check those first with the ignition switch turned off. If that doesn't appear to be the problem, the dealer will connect their scanner to the Air Bag Computer to retrieve the stored diagnostic fault codes. That will determine the direction to begin troubleshooting the system.