Airbag light flashing - advice please

[gerrymoore]

Wife has a 2015 Mazda 2 1.5 petrol. The airbag light is flashing 9 times which is code for drivers side airbag. It has been doing this for a long, long time and have managed to get it through the MOT a few times (not saying how ) She does very little mileage and car has only done 16K from new.

Would like to get it fixed but do not want to be ripped off. I've checked as best I can for bad connections and can't find anything obvious. I assume it could be the airbag or the clockspring and I am confident enough to change either but would be good to know before I start the job ...anyone give me either advice on doing myself .... or where to take it North West area?? Thanks Gerry

 

[hotponyshoes]

I'd guess at clockspring but a fault code scanner will be cheap enough and would tell you exactly..

 

[Robotstar5]

Not sure I'd want to mess with an explosive device unless you really know what you're doing.

 

[gerrymoore]

Airbags are OK if you disconnect the battery before you touch them......I did it when I changed the steering wheel on my BMW ...... I've got a cheap scanner but really need a better one to tell me what's going on......

 

[Guineafowl]

I was advised to disconnect the battery for 10 mins before unplugging the airbag. On my setup (Freelander 1) the connector automatically shorted the terminals when unplugged.

 

[Barking Mat]

Isn't it the seatbelts which set off airbags ?

 

[gerrymoore]

No there are crash sensors around the car ....

 

[roofman]

Airbags are OK if you disconnect the battery before you touch them......I did it when I changed the steering wheel on my BMW ...... I've got a cheap scanner but really need a better one to tell me what's going on......

I have a pretty complex Topdon scanner here Gerry if you want me to run a test..home both days at the weekend if you want to pop up

 

[Misterg]

Isn't it the seatbelts which set off airbags ?

No there are crash sensors around the car ....

The crash sensors feed into the airbag ECU which decides whether to fire the airbag, and if so, which ones. The ECU then sends an electrical signal to a small 'initiator' buried in the airbag propellant that triggers the controlled explosion that inflates the bag.

The initiators are small metal cans, about the size of a hearing-aid battery. The electrical leads are insulated from the can by a small glass bead. We used to make the glass for them - it had tightly controlled expansion coefficient and purity (ME3 for those that know).

Each ignitor must have used less than a tenth of a gram of glass, but we used to make and sell it by the tonne. They were pretty pee'd off when the factory shut...