I left the sunroof on my 95 maxima opened. It rained very hard that night, the car was soaked. The airbag light came on that day and has been on ever since. Could the control unit have rusted? It's in the center console right under the sunroof opening.

Has anyone had this experience? I wonder if the airbags will actually work as they should.

I tried the routine that shuts the airbag light off, but it doesn't work. The light remains on.

 

Nope - if that light is on, at least part of the SRS system will not work as expected.

You are right in that the airbag controller is under the console. Try to open the console and air it out - cleanout the connector and see if that helps (i.e. try the reset sequence again after all the cleaning).

 

Is that safe? I thought a dealer had to look at it.

 

Unplug the negative terminal of battery for a 1/2 hour first.

 

That will disable the airbag, right? Nothing else to disconnect?

Then, just reconnect the battery when I'm done with the cleanup?

 

Yes - let the car sit so all the charge built into the system is discharged. Then fiddle away. I don't think unplugging a connector is going to pop a bag. Just be careful when putting reconnecting the battery and always expect and plan for the the worst.

 

last question, any chance the airbag will pop unexpectedly while I'm driving because the light is on?

And thanks!

 

No. Nein. Negative.

 

i dont think there's any chance, unless rats have broken into you car and chewed the power and ground wires together...

it's funny, i was watching monster garage last night, and they touched the power and ground of the airbag in a crown vic to the battery terminals to let the bag go off...it was pretty cool..

but you should be good, my airbags light's been on since i got my car....damned side airbags...

 

When you say connector, do you mean a connector on the airbag controller?