It was on when I bought the car (5 years ago )I tried 2 mechanics who cleared the light for an hour ,before it came back and has been on ever since .2 years ago I went to the dealer to diagnose, they charged me $300 and said I need a steering wheel airbag and passenger seat airbag costing $1200.

I gave up until i decided to let my new mechanic mess with it , he scanned it and said it was the clock spring , clock spring was changed but light still stayed on . I went back today ,he checked the wiring under the seat and opened up the driver's side seat back to access the airbag wiring ,he tested it for shorts or damage ,since he said he got a 2200 code for that airbag.

He disconnected the connector in the seat back and put them back together , light went off.
He said he found a service bulletin about that wiring and harness in and under the seat and playing with the connectors might do the trick ,it seems to have worked .The light has been off for 6 hrs now ,this never happened before .

 

I have had my 99 from new, I remember having an issue with the side impact air bags within the first year, it was fixed under warranty, and there was a TSB about it then.

 

Holy crap! I've been living with that blinking SOB forever! Is there a way to "access" the back of the seat or is it something that must be cut and mended? I've got fabric seats, not leather.

 

Are you saying you have side air bags and cloth seats? I've never seen that combo before.

 

I would think that when the side air bags was introduced, it wasn't limited to only GLE and SE models...it was optional then?

 

I have leather seats ,on the back of the seat there is a panel that pick up most of the seat back ,it has tabs and has to be popped of with a wide flat blade screwdriver and this will get you to all the wiring.

That air bag light was driving me mad for 5 years.

 

Ahh ok. Yeah no access panel for me.

@ Wizard, no I was referring to just steering wheel and passenger dashboard air bag. But this was something that I was always keeping my eye out for to try to fix. I did try all the button pressing, closing door, turn off turn on combos that you find with searching. The wiring under the seats was one of the things I have yet to check. I didn't know if my seats had wiring inside as well.

My airbag light blinks constantly just like OP so I figured I'd ask more details about the wires

Also I have confirmed over the years that I have, I'm assuming a rare "bare bones" kinda of bottom rung SE. It is an SE but it has cloth seats, and Auto and was NOT equiped with Bose. I have the White guages and I do not have the secondary brake light in the rear as found in GLEs and GXEs. I bought this from a dealer, VINs match up and everything. I think it was a Fleet Vehicle before I got a hold of it, so as few options as possible. /shrug

 

Gotcha. When you said "cloth seats" earlier you threw me off. I still don't understand why you'd start looking for wires under your seat when you don't have side airbags to begin with...