How many people have had the airbag warning light activate

[Louie the Explorer]

Wanted to see if the airbag light came back on after repairs 6 months ago. 2015 explorer limited with 24,000 miles. Used forscan and started to wiggle connectors all over the truck. Found the connector on the passenger side 2nd row bench showed resistance changes when moved. Cleaned the connections and applied chemtronics control cleaner to the contacts and no resistance changes afterward. I am a electronics technician with over 50 years of experience and do not agree with using dialectic grease on those connections. My belief is those connectors have very little friction to overcome the insulating properties of the dielectric grease.

Dielectric grease is an insulator, without enough friction the grease prevents a low resistance connection. I get why ford want to use it, to stop corrosion which can also cause a bad connection. The chemical named above not only cleans contacts it leaves a residue to prevent oxidation of the contacts. After applying the cleaner to the male pins (used a Q tip to apply even though it is in spray can form) the connectors were plugged and unplugged a few times.
The spray is made mainly for cleaning pots in stereo and radio equipment. And no, I do not have stock in this company,lol. Hope this helps someone with a reoccurring issue.

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum Louie.
Ford uses what I believe is dielectric grease in the key fob.
Note: Do not wipe off any grease on the
battery terminals or on the back surface of
the circuit board.

Peter

 

[Louie the Explorer]

Hi Peter, thanks for the welcome. I did see that when I changed the battery. I am sure that is to prevent corrosion and bad battery connection. I do not remember whether I wiped it off, lol. In an application like spark plugs, tail light bulbs, I agree dielectric grease works great and use it there (especially on boat trailer tail light bulbs).

 

[Forgivensinner]

my 2015 airbag light is on, i plugged in a scanner but it doesn't register anything........how do i turn the dang thing off?

 

[Louie the Explorer]

Update. Almost 1 year since cleaning that connector and the air bag light is on again. Forscan confirms it is the same seat and the same error, inflatable seat belt open circuit. Forscan says it measures 5 Ohms while the circuit on the rear drivers side measures 2.


Of course as soon as you wiggle the connector and wires the resistance changes. I am done playing games with this.


Cut the plug and socket completely out of the circuit and connected the wires from the seat directly to the vehicle harness. Soldered and heat shrunk every single wire.


The photo shows what was cut out. Is this the way Ford sends a vehicle out of the factory? Or is this some half-a$$ attempted repair at the Ford Dealership? My vehicle report has a notation that this vehicle was serviced for an air bag light before I purchased it.


The plug on the vehicle harness side was connected by crimp connectors that were then soldered and very sloppily heat shrunk. It was a disaster and was unable to determine if the sloppy repair or an intermittent connection in the plug was the cause of high resistance.

It surprises me that with how sensitive the system is that Ford does not use gold plated connectors at least on the air bag circuits. The wires should be soldered to the pins, rather then crimped as well. This issue could have just been a bad factory crimp in the connector pins. The connector pins still looked clean and shiny.





Anyway if you keep getting the airbag from hell light here is a way to solve it once and for all!

 

[Leck G]

The poll needs another option:

Yes, I fixed it myself!

I used the Ford electrical grease, (not the dielectric grease used on battery terminals or spark plug boots) on the 2 electrical connectors under the kick panels.

There is a TSB on the procedure.

30 minutes of work with the special grease and the light went off! Light been off for about a year now.

 

[peterk9]

The poll needs another option:

Yes, I fixed it myself!
..................................................................................

Go ahead and vote now.

Peter

 

[ChicagoTRS]

My 2011 Limited finally had the airbag light come on around a month ago and has stayed lit. I first figured it would have been one of the rear seats or under the front seats...unplugged replugged all of those connectors...problem remains. Pulled the carpet to get access to plug C211...tried to unplug/clean/replug the connector. How do you remove that connector? Fiddled with it for 10 minutes, could not get it removed but started the truck and no more light. Been off for a few days now...minimally if the problem returns the likely culprit is C211 and I will know to focus there.

 

[03WIExplorerLtd]

Had it happen a couple times three times....had to replace the harness I believe, the seatbelt or wiring harness. Two replacements and a cleaning set me back probably 700. Do you have a code scanner? Look at an eml327 and torquex app. Autozone scanners won't read SRS codes.
Good luck

 

[markwv29]

The airbag light in my 2012 Explorer stays on. The code reader is showing no codes..

 

[jons901]

The airbag light in my 2012 Explorer stays on. The code reader is showing no codes..

Hi Mark,

Do you have one of the code readers that shows vehicle specific codes as well? I had this issue with my '14 and it was a connector under the back seat for the inflatable belts. The codes did not show in the normal diagnostics but when I bought the enhanced vehicle specific package in OBD Fusion the codes showed up.

 

[Odrapnew]

Does the reader read the BCM?
Most of your standard OBD2 readers just read the ECU.
I think you need the ELM327 or something like that.

 

[peterk9]

The airbag light in my 2012 Explorer stays on. The code reader is showing no codes..

Welcome to the Forum Mark.
Your thread was moved to this one. It could just be the connector under the seat that needs 'readjustment'.
Here is another thread found using the handy 'Search' feature; Is there a way to diagnose an airbag light w/o visiting the dealer?

Peter

 

[Amandah3585]

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 also have a 2016 Explorer that had to have the transmission issues fixed and now dealing with the air bag light. Took it to dealer today said it would be around $600 to fix some wiring shorts in the 2nd row. This is crazy! Just curious what work you had to have done for your air bag light!

 

[peterk9]

I also have a 2016 Explorer that had to have the transmission issues fixed and now dealing with the air bag light. Took it to dealer today said it would be around $600 to fix some wiring shorts in the 2nd row. This is crazy! Just curious what work you had to have done for your air bag light!

Welcome to the Forum.
Did they actually diagnose and trace it as being the problem or did they just guess? In many cases that cause it was the plug under the driver's seat that was the issue. Sometimes just reseating it fixed the problem. There are several posts in this thread about this issue and I believe some may even address the 2nd row issue. FYI, the member you quoted was last seen here on January 6th, 2020.

Peter

 

[Amandah3585]

Welcome to the Forum.
Did they actually diagnose and trace it as being the problem or did they just guess? In many cases that cause it was the plug under the driver's seat that was the issue. Sometimes just reseating it fixed the problem. There are several posts in this thread about this issue and I believe some may even address the 2nd row issue. FYI, the member you quoted was last seen here on January 6th, 2020.

Peter

Thanks, they actually did diagnose that it is a loose wiring issue under 2nd row seat. Just says C141C found loose connections under both seats.

 

[peterk9]

Looks like it could be similar to that in post #101. Are you over 60k miles or 5 years from the date you bought it?

Peter

 

[Amandah3585]

Looks like it could be similar to that in post #101. Are you over 60k miles or 5 years from the date you bought it?

Peter

Yup, 75,000 and I bought it used in December 2018

 

[peterk9]

Yup, 75,000 and I bought it used in December 2018

So much for the warranty on that system.

Peter

 

[jons901]

Received a letter from Ford today regarding this issue:

>>>>Customer Satisfaction Program 21B11:

>>>>On your vehicle, it may be possible the second-row seat belt may have a worn or damaged electrical connection. The second-row seat belts still function normally and this has no effect on seat belt inflation.

>>>>This may result in an illumination of the airbag light.

They are offering to inspect and replace the connectors free of charge if needed. They are also offering reimbursement if you paid to have this corrected before the program letter. You simply need to provide the receipts to the dealer along with the letter.

Since I bought the connectors from Tascaparts ($97.58 for both) and replaced them myself following TSB 16-0001 I will be interested to see if I can get a reimbursement for the parts, but I am not holding my breath.