air bag light info

[jeeptorino68]

looking for some help here.

air bag light is on sometimes and off other times, it doesn't come on and off while driving rather it just decides to be on or off after i start the jeep.
it is a 2002.
so far, i have inspected the wiring harness on the steering column...
didnt see anything wrong there. i wiggled wires while the light was on. no change.

i didnt disconnect any plugs yet (didnt want to set off the air bag...)

the radiator has been replaced on the jeep and i have read about damaging the sensor during radiator replacement. where do i look for this sensor and plug.

any info on testing the system?

 

[Billwill]

looking for some help here.

air bag light is on sometimes and off other times, it doesn't come on and off while driving rather it just decides to be on or off after i start the jeep.
it is a 2002.
so far, i have inspected the wiring harness on the steering column...
didnt see anything wrong there. i wiggled wires while the light was on. no change.

i didnt disconnect any plugs yet (didnt want to set off the air bag...)

the radiator has been replaced on the jeep and i have read about damaging the sensor during radiator replacement. where do i look for this sensor and plug.

any info on testing the system?

Disconnect the battery, short positive cable to ground and leave standing for a half hour to discharge before unplugging connectors in air bag area.

The circuit diagram for 2003 (same as 2002) is available here.
It is worth your while to download the whole of Section 8, about 42 Mb.
This gives you the circuit diagrams for everything, locations of components and a good Theory of Operation/Troubleshooting section on how things such as the air bags work.

I cannot get the link to work but if you look here on this forum for the post by bigman re: URGENT HELP Fuse 26 keeps blowing. On about the third last page he posts the link to "scribd.com etc."

 

[jeeptorino68]

anyone else have ideas???

on thursday i disconnected the battery, let it sit for a few min. then i wiggled all the connectors, and i unhooked the yellow connector that is under the steering column shroud right behind the steering wheel, this has 4 wires for the airbag. i re attached that, the shroud and the battery. air bag light was off until this afternoon...
so that worked for about 4 days then it came back...
any ideas?

 

[jeeptorino68]

also can i disconnect this yellow four wire plug with the battery hooked up? i read that it has a spring loaded piece inside that will trip to prevent the airbag from deploying if disconnected.
but just wondering if anyone knows

 

[Billwill]

also can i disconnect this yellow four wire plug with the battery hooked up? i read that it has a spring loaded piece inside that will trip to prevent the airbag from deploying if disconnected.
but just wondering if anyone knows

I have replied to this query of yours over on Jeepforum and yes there is a metal plate inside the connector that shorts out all four wires as you pull the plug apart so as to stop any back EMF from setting off the airbags. I have worked on my drivers' airbag without disconnecting the battery but for safetys' sake it is probably better to disconnect the battery first.

 

[jeeptorino68]

i saw that and replied over there, i am new to all the KJ forums still so i dont know which sites get more traffic/responses yet. i will correspond with you over there. hopefully it is this connector though

 

[jeeptorino68]

still working on this issue, it doesnt seem to come on as much when cold. when the weather warms up it comes on more often, also if i disconnect the connector under the column then the light seems to stay off for 3 days or so and then starts coming back. can you post any pictures of how you bypassed the connector? or email them?

 

[ridenby]

My lite has been on for couple of years,it went out today after I dunked Jeep in a deep water hole.

 

[Billwill]

There are no pictures to see.....I cut off both male and female connectors and soldered the wires direct to each other...used shrink tubing to insulate and wrapped it all in insulation tape.
Your connector should have the four wires as shown on the attached diagram:

BK/LB Black/Light Blue
DG/LB Dark Green/Light Blue
OR/LB Orange/Light Blue
TN/LB Tan/Light Blue

 

[jeeptorino68]

yes i see those wires.
the connector is yellow and right at the clock spring, when i undo the connector i have a male connector on the jeep side, and a female connector attached to the clock spring, no visible wires on the female side, or is there a connector further down the harness that needs to be checked?

 

[Billwill]

yes i see those wires.
the connector is yellow and right at the clock spring, when i undo the connector i have a male connector on the jeep side, and a female connector attached to the clock spring, no visible wires on the female side, or is there a connector further down the harness that needs to be checked?

Yes you need to look lower down the steering column....not right at the top where the clockspring sits. You should see a yellow connector with the four wires as shown...it pretty much flaps about loosely. If you pull the connector apart you will see that the connector going upwards to the clockspring area has a small shiny metal plate inside it...when the connector is pulled apart the metal plate shorts out the four wires at the airbag to prevent any back EMF setting off the airbags.
It is this connector that you need to check is making good contact...try plugging/unplugging it a few times to clean the contacts.
In my case the contacts at this plug were soft and feeble...I had to keep re-tensioning them. Eventually I got tired of doing this and cut off both male/female connectors and soldered the wires direct to each other.

 

[mdmaroon]

I eventually found out what my airbag problem was. The airbag control module needed to be replaced.... $1000 at the dealer... yay

 

[jeeptorino68]

thanks for the info Billwill, i will look further down the loom
i was confused because mine had a yellow connector on the clock spring, so i thought that was it.


i will keep you updated

 

[jeeptorino68]

ok well after looking today i could not find a yellow connector further down the harness under the dash... there was one yellow connector off on the right, but it had 2 wires in it and they were red in color.


the yellow connector pictured has the right colors that you mention billwill. but this is apparently the wrong one?
can you guide me further?

 

[Billwill]

I will have another look at the harness on my KJ to see where the cable goes to.

I have a sneaky suspiscian that Jeep may have added an additional section of cable to my RHD Jeep whereas your LHD Jeep may not require it.
Usually the circuit diagrams show differences between LHD and RHD models but the circuit diagrams are not infallable and in fact the diagram I am looking at does not show the connector that I have so I think that this is probably the case.
If this is the case then you need to check the connection where your cable goes into connector C1 at the Airbag Control Module otherwise there is is a strong possibility that you need to replace the clockspring....they do wear out!

 

[jeeptorino68]

ah i didnt even think of that, yours probably has some kind of extension cable or something since it is RHD.

i will have to check the connection, i have some electrical contact cleaner that i may use on both ends of my connector and see if that helps any.
i will keep searching

 

[Xodius]

Did you check the sensors? There are two one on each side, driver and pass of the rad. The one that brakes off usually is drivers side. Look below the large rad hose and you will see it. It is about the size of a tictac box but runs at a 20 degree angle so just off from up and down. The plug is in the bottom. There is a red clip that holds it together. That is what I broke on mine and had to fabricate a clamp basically to keep it plugged in all the way.
The passenger one is just to the left (when looking down) or towards the pass side of the transmission cooler lines that plug into the rad.
Let me know if you have issues and hope that helps.


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[jeeptorino68]

i inspected those previously, the radiator had been replaced by the PO no idea on his quality of work... the radiator is fine but who knows if he damaged the sensor i will check it again maybe disconnect it and clean the connection and make sure it is locking in.

 

[Xodius]

I know mine would plug in but it still threw the light. Since it really doesn't cost anything it is with checking a couple times. Simple stupid I always say.


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[jeeptorino68]

i cleaned the yellow connector and the divers side sensor at the radiator.
so far so good...knock on wood