93 GRAND CARAVAN AIRBAGS LIGHT ON

What is the most likely cause? Does anyone have a troubleshooting
manual for this? Will an Autozone code reader pull airbag codes?
Thanks.

 

You need to take it to the dealer. Air bag are very dangerous. Have you
ever seen the cop shows--
When they find an air bag not installed in a vehicle they call the bomb
squad. It requires a special code reader. The only thing you can do is
maybe disconnect the battery for 24 hours & see if it clears or comes back
on

 

Without question, the most likely cause is a bad clock spring - a common
failure. Have the clock spring replaced after that is confirmed to be
the problem.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

That has absolutely nothing to do with the problem at hand. The
failures that would make the light go on are not going to set the bag off.

As I said in my other post, it's most likely simply in need of a new
clock spring. Not an unusual failure, no big deal.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Bill,

This is a 1993. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought these vans did
not have a "clock spring" until 1996 and newer? Or is it that the
clock spring was always there, but was not a major problem until after
the 1995 model year?

Just curious.

 

I have a 1990 and a 1993, and they both have clock springs. They became
necessary when airbags were introduced, as a way to make all the
electrical connections to the steering-wheel mounted airbag.

Most reported problems with the clock springs starting showing up when
the vans were re-designed for the 1996 model year. This may have been
due to a re-design or a change in suppliers. The typical symptom was
the air bag light staying on, and/or the horn and cruise control no
longer working.

-KM

 

Absolutely stupid, in that model air bags are easy as pie to work on.
All you got is the air bags, wiring to them (including the clock spring)
and the air bag computer. The motion sensor is inside the computer.
The only thing that is dangerous is the bag and as long as you only apply
power to the system after you have worked on it when you are not
sitting behind the wheel, the worst that could happen is the bag explode
and dust talcum power over the front seat. And that could only
happen if the bag computer itself was screwed up.

Models that use external crash sensors are a little harder to work
on, of course.

That is true.

That is not true. If his GC has drivers side only air bag he can remove
the bag and put a high impedience voltmeter on the air bag connector
and start the car. If there is absolutely no voltage at all, the
clockspring
is very likely at fault. If there is voltage then the bag igniter is
probably open. Used air bags for those years are extremely cheap. The
wreckers
around here sell them for about $10 a bag. For that cheap if you get
voltage at the clockspring it is just a few minutes labor to replace the
drivers bag and see if the light goes away. Obviously you do this when
the battery is disconnected and the car has sat overnight to drain away
any residual charge.

The passenger bag is a lot more difficult to work with and I would not
try shotgunning it.

The bag computer will tell you what is wrong if you have the dealership
read it with a DRB scantool.

My 94 T&C had the passengers bag missing, the drivers bag disconnected,
and the airbag light removed from the dash, when I bought it. I took
longer removing the passenger bag at a u-pull wrecking yard and installing
in the T&C then all the rest of the diagnosis and repair.

Ted

 

Check the fuses. In the 95 (and I believe 93 will be the same) the rear
wiper and Airbag shared a fuse and this would often blow due to an issue
with the rear wiper harness/motor. It is covered in a safety recall and in
mine they replaced the harness and motor.