Airbag light started flashing

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McMac
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Location: Washington State

Airbag light started flashing

Postby McMac » Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:58 pm

Driving on freeway and airbag light just started flashing. There has been no electrical work at all (in more than a year) and it's been driven very little lately. Car was restarted a few times but it continued to blink. I used the procedure in an old thread to reset it, which worked. I'll see if it comes on again.

After poking around online, I found a group of Pathfinder owners complaining of this and several said there was a problem with the horn not working at the same time after the light started blinking (this was also mentioned in this forum viewtopic.php?t=307 as being caused by using the horn). I couldn't find anything else posted here. They also referenced a recall and claimed that each of their VIN's were not covered under that recall, and that Nissan would not tell them which VIN's were covered. "The manufacturer was contacted by the dealer who stated that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 08v690000 (air bags)."

I also found TSB #NTB-08-055-A from January 2014 with a NHTSA TSB #10025522. It's for the front airbags sensor/control module.

Thoughts anyone?

Thank you.
Last edited by McMac on Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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disallow
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Postby disallow » Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:39 pm

This happens in my 05, usually when the wife is trying to help the kids with something in the back, and is crawling around and all over the front seat. Enough conflicting signals from her seat sensor, and the airbags go into 'safe mode' and the light starts blinking.

The only way to get rid of it is to clear the error code with a code reader.

Or do what you did. :)

Interesting research. I suppose you can't rule out a wiring issue of some sort. Let us know if it comes back!

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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Sat Feb 22, 2020 3:41 am

First, go to Nissan's website and use their recall checker to make sure there are no open recalls that are applicable to your problem; you could call your dealer or Nissan's customer hotline @ 1-800-NISSAN-1. You will need your VIN #. If there is a recall that is open and applies to the air bag system, contact your Nissan dealer to have it fixed.

If there are no recalls open, look at the flashing pattern of the air bag warning light. If there is long and short flashes of any pattern, there is a stored code that will need to be accessed using a capable scan tool. If the flashes are all the same length (approx. 1/2 second, on/off/on/off), then it is in present diagnostic mode. In this case, try this procedure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kG7aeTVkdw

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McMac
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Postby McMac » Sat Feb 22, 2020 3:11 pm

I did take smj999smj's advice and checked for recalls. There is a recall for the crash zone sensor for the airbags, but is only for vehicles in high road salt usage states (long list). Other states got a warranty extension to 10 years. My VIN showed nothing.

disallow- It's good to know that there are other things which might trip it.

I used that Youtube procedure to reset it and I've driven it a couple of times. It's stayed off so we'll see. It was a steady 1/2 second on/off blink.

If it comes on again, it's off to the dealership and I'll post any news from them.

Thanks all!

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McMac
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Postby McMac » Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:26 pm

Update- After clearing the code, it tripped again for the second time 2 days ago. I did clear it a second time and called the dealership and spoke with the service advisor who knows this car. He said they've not really seen problems with the airbags or the control units. Most often he said it's the shielded wiring bundle which connects all the goodies in the steering wheel (that would also explain the horn problems others reported as causing the light to trip), but of course won't know until it trips again and they can read the code. Anyway, since it's happened twice I'm assuming it'll happen again. Next time I'll not clear it and have them look at it and will post what they find.

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Swerve
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Postby Swerve » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:09 pm

I have a steady blinking airbag light. It was taken in by the previous owner at 120k KM's/ 75k miles, scanned and found to be a faulty 'spiral cable' which is in the steering wheel and had a $650CAD parts and labour estimate. I will be having this rechecked and done the next time it goes in for anything.

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McMac
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Postby McMac » Fri Apr 17, 2020 1:01 pm

Thanks for the info Swerve. After things calm down a bit, I'll plan to take it in and get it fixed. Will post what they find. If it is that cable- kind of sounds like it from the various sources- I'll know the ballpark dollar amount.

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McMac
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Re: Airbag light started flashing

Postby McMac » Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:18 pm

The airbag light was coming on more frequently, so I took it to the dealership. The code it pulled up did show the spiral cable was bad. All good after about $600 out the door.

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Swerve
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Re: Airbag light started flashing

Postby Swerve » Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:18 am

Good to hear. For the benefit of others who also may encounter this, attached is the part we had swapped. Notice that it’s a big assembly behind the steering wheel airbag and it includes the stalks! It doesn’t come separate, you can get the lights/turn signals stalk and the other stalk separately but not the middle “spiral cable” part, only as an assembly.

Also on mine the radio volume and track selector switches intermittently worked or not from one minute to the next, where I just adjusted that directly on the radio itself. Replacing this assembly cured this issue for me as well. Everything is perfect now.
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Brmadsenad
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Re: Airbag light started flashing

Postby Brmadsenad » Thu Aug 06, 2020 3:49 pm

Swerve wrote:
Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:18 am
Good to hear. For the benefit of others who also may encounter this, attached is the part we had swapped. Notice that it’s a big assembly behind the steering wheel airbag and it includes the stalks! It doesn’t come separate, you can get the lights/turn signals stalk and the other stalk separately but not the middle “spiral cable” part, only as an assembly.

Also on mine the radio volume and track selector switches intermittently worked or not from one minute to the next, where I just adjusted that directly on the radio itself. Replacing this assembly cured this issue for me as well. Everything is perfect now.
Actually you CAN buy just the spiral cable part, commonly referred to as the Clock Spring.

I have done it. Twice. The part is out there on e-bay, and you have to disassemble the large assembly a bit to get down to just the white part that contains the clock-spring.

I did it because my cruise control buttons quit working. It fixed that problem, but now I have the flashing-air-bag light problem, and it is exactly like you describe. Where I have previously prelaced the Crash Zone Sensor, I feel pretty confident it is a clock-spring issue, again.

Thing is. . . these e-bay clock-springs aren't working for very long. Maybe I should try to get the whole assembly instead? The clockspring part is only $50:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Air-Bag-Clocks ... 1438.l2649

Brmadsenad
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Re: Airbag light started flashing

Postby Brmadsenad » Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:40 am

A follow up to my earlier post.

I bought the Clock Spring from the e-bay link. My Pathy is a 2008 SE. Getting the exact right part is kind of a tricky deal, but this was the part for me. About $50.

I've actually done this before, as my steering wheel mounted buttons stopped working. Last time, I had almost no problems. Anyway. . . .

Removing the horn/air-bag assembly revealed that one of the Airbag wires had been damaged by the movement of the horn. Probably poor-routing when I installed it last time.

After diconnecting the cables, I remove the steering wheel, then two screws hold the Clock-Spring and Turn-Signal stalks to the steering column. Un-do the two screws and remove the whole assembly.

With the assembly out of the car, remove the turn signal/light stalks. They just snap into place with plastic tabs and slide right out.

Now remove the Steering Angle Sensor (SAS). It is mounted to the clock spring with three small screws.

Here is where I screwed up . . . I was very conscious of the need to have steering wheel centered and to make sure I didn't rotate the new clock spring from center before installing. I didn't adequately consider the need to keep the old clock spring and SAS centered.

Pretty sure at some point I turned the SAS one rotation and then installed it on new clock spring. Result is flashing SLIP and VDC lights. But the airbag light is all better!

If you read up about it, they require/recommend that you re-calibrate the SAS after doing anything with the alignment, suspension, or steering. Reports are that a dealership would charge you $100+ to do it. I'd bet an independent shop would be less. You need a scanner with SAS capabilities. Being stubborn, I've researched and bought a $150 scanner that should allow me to re-calibrate the SAS.

Should anybody on here want to rent it, I bet we could work something economical out. I'll report on re-calibration results tomorrow after the new Scanner Shows Up. . .

The "VDC Off" light is often illuminated after you disconnect the battery. Some posts suggest that if you drive straight slowly at that point the SAS will calibrate itself. I don't know if that is totally true. . . but either I didn't do that or didn't do it right. Other posts suggest you can get the SAS to re-enter "self-learn" mode by disconnecting battery and then driving straight and slow. That hasn't worked for me. Maybe I was eager to own a nicer scan tool, I dunno, but I ended up believing a proper SAS re calibration, as recommended by Nissan, was the way to go.

Brmadsenad
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Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Re: Airbag light started flashing

Postby Brmadsenad » Fri Aug 14, 2020 8:22 am

The Foxwell scanner I bought for $150 was very simple to use and reset the steering angle sensor.

The "VDC OFF" and "SLIP Lights" went off immediately and the traction control and ABS are operating perfefctly.

So, beginning to end, I spent $200 ($50 for clock spring, $150 for Foxwell SBS/ABS/SAS Scanner). It can be done for only the price of a clock spring, or the price of a clockspring and paying someone with the appropraite scanner to resent the SAS for you. But $200 and now owning a nice scanner beats $600 to the dealership for just fixing the clock spring!


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