Airbag light stays on when hot outside

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by kmc6566, Apr 19, 2020.

  1. kmc6566

    kmc6566 Junior Member

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    Has anyone ever heard of this happening?
    I did a search and could not find anything. Sorry if there was and I missed it.
    The airbag light will stay on when hot outside. It started last year. Then when weather cooled down it stopped staying on.
    Now that weather warmed up it is doing same thing. It will be off in the morning. Then stay on in afternoon. Then be off again in the morning.
    I have 258k on my 2009 and it still runs great except for this light.
    I have heard other people have issues with light and they end up replacing all the wiring which is thousands of dollars.
    But that was when light always stayed on.
    I was hoping there might be a cheaper fix because mine only happens when it is hot outside.
    Thanks.
    I hope I did not duplicate post. When I tried earlier it did not seem to create it.
     
    #1 kmc6566, Apr 19, 2020
  2. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    WHICH air bag light ?
    The one that indicates a person has not fastened their belt......with the accompanying alarm sound ?
    Or the one that indicates that the passenger air bag is OFF.....with no alarm ??

    And yes, you made a duplicate post.
    Please find and delete the other one before anybody replies to it.
     
    #2 sam spade 2, Apr 19, 2020
  3. kmc6566

    kmc6566 Junior Member

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    It's the SRS warning light. The one that looks like the side view of a person buckles with the airbag deploying.
    I will try to figure out how to delete other post.
     
    #3 kmc6566, Apr 19, 2020
  4. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    Best is just to read the codes and go from there. Cheap code readers can normally only read engine related codes. Best code reader for a Prius is Techstream and a cheap way to get it is Mini-VCI but that requires a laptop.

    Just report the other one to moderator.
     
    #4 valde3, Apr 19, 2020
  5. kmc6566

    kmc6566 Junior Member

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    I have a couple different code readers. They both come up clear. No codes present.
     
    #5 kmc6566, Apr 19, 2020
  6. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

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    If the fault light is on or has been on there is (almost surely) codes in the memory. You just need a code reader that works. There's a method to get the some type of fault codes out without a reader but I don't recommend it. To find it you can just use search.
     
    #6 valde3, Apr 19, 2020
  7. kmc6566

    kmc6566 Junior Member

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    Ok. No problem. Let me see if I can get a more complete code reader. Thanks again for the help. Once I get a code I will send another post and see what people say.
     
    #7 kmc6566, Apr 20, 2020
  8. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    A loose connection likely won't set a code......for a device that operates from a simple switch.
     
    #8 sam spade 2, Apr 20, 2020
  9. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    I think we are going off in the wrong direction here.

    Is this the same light that comes ON if you fail to buckle your seat belt ?
    Is it accompanied by an alarm BEEP ??

    If so.....then the system is either not seeing your belt buckled OR it thinks there is a passenger present and of course that belt is not buckled.

    BUT.......SRS is the air bag system.
    If that really is the SRS fault light, then forget what I said.
    SRS faults generally should be taken to the dealer because there is some danger in self-servicing.

    Also, some codes do not "store" and are only present while the fault is present.
     
    #9 sam spade 2, Apr 20, 2020
  10. kmc6566

    kmc6566 Junior Member

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    I did finally get the codes. B1801 and b1811. Could be wiring. Faulty airbag. Faulty clockspring. Since I can get a used clockspring cheap I will change that out to see if that is the issue. I figure that is probably most likely culprit. And if that doesnt solve it I am not out much money. Thanks for all the help guys.
     
    #10 kmc6566, Apr 23, 2020
  11. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    The post you quoted was way off base.......because I didn't understand what light was coming on.

    This is the AIR BAG. Please be very careful when working on or around it.
    People have been severely injured when it went off unexpectedly.
     
    #11 sam spade 2, Apr 23, 2020
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