How many people have had the airbag warning light activate | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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How many people have had the airbag warning light activate

Have you had the airbag warning light activate?

  • No - my airbag light has never activated

    Votes: 26 21.0%
  • Yes - I took it to the dealer and it has been fixed for more than 6 months

    Votes: 10 8.1%
  • Yes - I took it to the dealer and it has been fixed for less than 6 months

    Votes: 11 8.9%
  • Yes - I took it to the dealer and the problem was not fixed. It has come back on again.

    Votes: 18 14.5%
  • Yes - I have not taken it to be fixed.

    Votes: 54 43.5%
  • Yes - I fixed it myself.

    Votes: 5 4.0%

  • Total voters
    124

dco43054

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City, State
cmh
Year, Model & Trim Level
20 XLT
So, there seems to be more than a couple people who have had this problem.

When it is lit, the airbags are reported to not be operable.

Have you had this problem? Let's see how widespread it might be.
 



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I have had the problem and I believe there is a TSB on it. The fix is to add dielectric grease to the connections. I had this done (to the tune of several hundred dollars) and it still isn't fixed! Ford won't release another fix to anyone other than dealerships but I have absolutely no trust in my dealership so I bring it to my own trusted mechanic. My airbag light is intermittent, and it's very unsettling to be driving around with my kids in the car not knowing if the airbags are going to deploy in an accident. I have a friend who also has a 2011 Explorer and his airbag light is on as well. This is a safety issue! Why won't Ford fix this for free?!
 






My 2011 had the airbag light come on. It was fixed via fixing the connector (connector was loose or something). My airbag light came back on once for a good week some months or a year down the line and then it disappeared. Never came back on though and this was around 2 years ago.
 






Never had the issue with my 2011 Explorer or with my current vehicle.
 






I have had my 2011 XLT in the dealership at least a half a dozen times for the airbag light. I remember the dielectric grease issue but I now believe it has been the seal-belt tensioner at least three times. In fact, I just had that part replaced at Ford of Slidell, at least I believe it was that part, I might be wrong, and then three weeks later, the light comes on. I brought it to Veteran's Ford here in Metairie, they replaced it and the moment I got in the car it lit up again. They told me today the part was bad.

Ford's inability to keep my airbag system working and absolutely terrible customer service from my original dealer, at least in my opinion, will keep me from buying the F150 I wanted to get next!
 






The airbag warning light came on on my 2015 Sport within the first 2,000 miles and the dealer diagnosed and replaced a faulty retractor on the 2nd row, driver side inflatable seat belt. The warning light came on again within another 1,000 miles. Although the problem was diagnosed as the same retractor, to the dealer's credit, the technician opted to dig deeper to find the root cause and found a pinched and partially broken wire near the connector located under the console.
 






For anyone following this:

I have a 2011 XLT and began to get the Airbag Warning Light (AWL) early on, late 2011. I had it serviced numerous times over the years by Supreme Ford of Slidell who each time did a diagnostic and changed out, to the best of my knowledge, the seat-belt tensioner on the driver's side front. I can tell you that for the longest time, maybe six month, this was an on and off problem that had no correlation to anything (weather, time of day, temperature).

About two months back the light went on again, after being off for some time, and Supreme Ford changed, yes you guess it, the seat belt tensioner. That lasted about two weeks and I gave up. I opened a case with Ford and brought it to a new dealership, Veteran's Ford in Metairie, LA, where, yes, they changed the seat belt tensioner. That lasted until I got in the car to leave at which point the light went on again.

So, at this point, I began talking to the regional Ford Customer Service Rep and finally got Ford on board with the dealership to look beyond the seal belt tensioner at a potential wiring issue. I explained to them, if you had a lamp at your house and you were constantly changing out the light bulb with a new one after it failed, at what point would you consider the lamp?

So, the car went in yesterday and they are working on it now. They hoped to have it back last night, but not yet so hopefully that means they are digging into this and maybe once and for all I will feel confident about my air bag system.
 






This info is specific to the 2012 Ford Explorer with airbag code 1212:13.

2012 Ford Explorer, base, 30,000 miles. Airbag light came on. Fixed the problem. Used Forscan software to analyze the problem. Code was 1212:13. Looking at the factory service manual this is the Driver Seatbelt Buckle Pretensioner Deployment circuit high impedance. NOTE!! This is the driver's seatbelt BUCKLE, i.e. on the driver's right hand side where you buckle your seatbelt into. I did not know before reading up on this problem that there is a small explosive in the seatbelt buckle mechanism that will "cinch" down in the event of a crash to prevent someone from sliding out from under their seatbelt. There is also an explosive on the seatbelt "winder" on the driver's left. This one is to pull your torso back into the seat. I knew about this one. These two work together in a crash. There are separate codes if that mechanism is the culprit.

WARNING - do NOT try to measure the resistance of the pretensioner directly with an ohmeter. You may explode the airbag!!!

Note also, this may be specific to the 2012. I also looked at the 2013 wiring diagram and it is different than this. The seatbelt pretensioner goes to a small connector (C3065) that is easy to see on the right side of the driver's seat cushion. This then goes to a large connector (C311) below the front of the driver's seat. This then goes to a large connector (C211) which is behind the carpet at the driver's kickpanel area. Finally this goes to connector (C310A) which is one of two connectors on the Restraint Control Module at the bottom of the front center console.

I used the Forscan software to snoop at the impedance it was seeing in the pretensioner circuit (DEPLOY_18_R). It was seeing 4 ohms. Acceptable is between 1.7 and 2.78 ohms. Then I disconnected C3065 and shorted the pins (1 & 2) that are for the pretensioner. I then used the Forscan software to see what the impedance was now. In theory is should be 0 ohms. Instead it was reading 2 ohms. This told me that there was something in the circuit that was not a solid connection. I simply disconnected and reconnected about six times the connectors one a time. C311 (under the seat) was not the culprit. Turns out that C211 was the problem. NOTE - I did NOT add any dielectric grease. That was not the issue. You get to C211 by popping the driver's scuff plate up and then popping out a single large round fastener that holds the carpet in place. If someone really needs it I can take some pictures and post.
 






My 2016 Explorer has been in at Veteran's Ford at least 5 or 6 times for the same problem. Still not fixed.
 






I just got my XLT back from Veteran's Ford. They had swapped out the seat-belt tensioner a few weeks back and as soon as I sat in the seat and moved it back, the light came on again. This time, after having the car for four days, they re-did the TSB from earlier which involved taking apart the connector below the driver's seat and applying di-electric great and then re-seating all the pins. So far, two days out, it is working but I am certainly not going to hold my breath on this.

I could not imagine a poorer repair process then the Ford technicians. They are limited to plugging in the diagnostic laptop and changing a part. In my case, I had to raise a little hell with Ford to get them to pull up my vehicle history and see at least four or more changes to the seat belt tensioner.

Jimbeau48, talk to Gene, the Service Manager, on this and make sure they have done the TSB.
 






I have had my 2011 in three times to fix it. It is back on again. I hate wasting my time taking it to the dealer. They are so incompetent.
 






What is frustrating is that the Ford Service Manual is VERY detailed about what steps that the tech should take for every specific airbag fault code. These steps really should get to the actual problem. The thresholds for the circuits to all be considered "OK" by the Restraints Control Module are pretty tight. This is why the airbag light can come and go off all by itself over time and why diddling with something (e.g. TSB) may make it go away for awhile. The Service Manual in conjunction with the "laptop" is capable of telling the tech pretty much exactly what is going on. One problem is that it really helps to have an understanding of electrical circuits to do this well and I assume most techs are not at this level of competency. Not really trying to dis Ford techs - just saying that this is likely not in their wheelhouse (no pun intended).
 






Once again to those of you reading and following this thread, make sure that your dealer has performed the TSB on your vehicle that relates to this. I have had it done twice.

There is a very large connector below the DS seat. You cannot miss it. Apparently inside of this connector there has been some issue with the pins not connecting. The TSB addresses this.

I had the issue for a long time, had the TSB done and it lasted for some time until recently. My local Ford dealership did the TSB over and so far it has lasted for a whole three days. Considering it's been on for three months that is progress. Do I expect this to last. No. Will I ever buy a Ford Explorer again. No. Would I recommend it to my worst enemy. No.

Anyway, all jokes aside, all the mechanic is going to do is behave like a monkey in that he or she is going to plug in the computer, run the diag, find out the retractor is bad and change it. I do not feel that Ford really cares about customer service anymore. If they did, they would look up the Vin number on your vehicle when doing a repair that you stated has been done over and over again and they would dive a little deeper. The problem is that if they cannot relate your issue to a code, they do not get paid for the work.
 






This info is specific to the 2012 Ford Explorer with airbag code 1212:13.

2012 Ford Explorer, base, 30,000 miles. Airbag light came on. Fixed the problem. Used Forscan software to analyze the problem. Code was 1212:13. Looking at the factory service manual this is the Driver Seatbelt Buckle Pretensioner Deployment circuit high impedance. NOTE!! This is the driver's seatbelt BUCKLE, i.e. on the driver's right hand side where you buckle your seatbelt into. I did not know before reading up on this problem that there is a small explosive in the seatbelt buckle mechanism that will "cinch" down in the event of a crash to prevent someone from sliding out from under their seatbelt. There is also an explosive on the seatbelt "winder" on the driver's left. This one is to pull your torso back into the seat. I knew about this one. These two work together in a crash. There are separate codes if that mechanism is the culprit.

WARNING - do NOT try to measure the resistance of the pretensioner directly with an ohmeter. You may explode the airbag!!!

Note also, this may be specific to the 2012. I also looked at the 2013 wiring diagram and it is different than this. The seatbelt pretensioner goes to a small connector (C3065) that is easy to see on the right side of the driver's seat cushion. This then goes to a large connector (C311) below the front of the driver's seat. This then goes to a large connector (C211) which is behind the carpet at the driver's kickpanel area. Finally this goes to connector (C310A) which is one of two connectors on the Restraint Control Module at the bottom of the front center console.

I used the Forscan software to snoop at the impedance it was seeing in the pretensioner circuit (DEPLOY_18_R). It was seeing 4 ohms. Acceptable is between 1.7 and 2.78 ohms. Then I disconnected C3065 and shorted the pins (1 & 2) that are for the pretensioner. I then used the Forscan software to see what the impedance was now. In theory is should be 0 ohms. Instead it was reading 2 ohms. This told me that there was something in the circuit that was not a solid connection. I simply disconnected and reconnected about six times the connectors one a time. C311 (under the seat) was not the culprit. Turns out that C211 was the problem. NOTE - I did NOT add any dielectric grease. That was not the issue. You get to C211 by popping the driver's scuff plate up and then popping out a single large round fastener that holds the carpet in place. If someone really needs it I can take some pictures and post.

Please share details and pictures...
... how did you jump the c3065 pins 1 and 2. Did you do these activities with car in ignition?
 






My 2016 Explorer has been in at Veteran's Ford at least 5 or 6 times for the same problem. Still not fixed.

Well mine has now been on for the last couple of days. Guess its time to go back to the dealer. First the transmission failure, now the airbag light. Not to mention, the whole damn truck rattles like a tin can. I love the engine in the truck, but the problems are starting to drive me crazy.
 






I assume this issue is not the passenger airbag "off" light that is below the screen?
 






I assume this issue is not the passenger airbag "off" light that is below the screen?
Nope, I know what that light is for. It was an airbag light on the gauge cluster that remained on. Dealer scanned the codes and said it has to do with the rear inflatable seat-belts. They are fixing that today along with the rattling sunroof and blower in the seat back. There is a TSB for the blower in the seat back, and for the rear inflatable seat-belts according to the tech I spoke with.
 






Replacing the clock spring (steering wheel) in ours fixed it.
 






we have this same issue with the airbag light being on constantly in our 15 XLT...took it too dealer and they said they'd order a part for one of the rear inflatable seatbelts, and never heard from them again. We are about to follow up and will give feedback soon...hopefully. :)
 



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we have this same issue with the airbag light being on constantly in our 15 XLT...took it too dealer and they said they'd order a part for one of the rear inflatable seatbelts, and never heard from them again. We are about to follow up and will give feedback soon...hopefully. :)
Just keep in mind that as long as the light is ON that the entire airbag system is inoperative.

Peter
 






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