Airbag Light Trouble

[JSkeezLegacy92]

Hey all, so I've been having some trouble getting my car to pass an inspection that takes the place when you buy a car out of province (from Canada). All went well except for the fact that they dinged me for not having an airbag. (Previous owner took out the module.) so I went to a shop and asked them what they look for. They said all they look for is before you turn the car over, the light comes on. When you start the car it goes off. This makes things a whole lot easier than having to completely add the airbag system back into the car. The only problem is I can't seem to find an airbag light on the cluster. I pulled a cluster from a 94 that I also pulled the airbag module from just in case. Still no light. Does anyone have any info on why I might not be fining the light?


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[canadianbc5ra]

Airbag light should be at the upper left corner of the cluster. When starting it should come on for roughly 2 seconds then shut off (self diagnostics). Do you have an airbag steering wheel? Is the airbag module (computer) still installed in the car? Have you checked to see if the lightbulb is installed in the car? If you don't have an airbag at the moment, the light bulb still works and the computer is installed in the car then I would search on the forum for the resistance of the original airbag and solder in a resistor to fool the system into thinking everything is ok.

[JSkeezLegacy92]

The system is in yes. But not "hooked up properly." On the back of the cluster on the left side there is 4 spots for lights. The CEL, the oil light and battery light. The fourth spot is covered by the circuit gasket and is blocked on the inside by plastic. There's no way to put a light in it. Does that mean that this is a non airbag cluster? I pulled it out of the car that had the airbag in it and I highly doubt it was swapped because first gen legacy's are pretty rare where I live


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[canadianbc5ra]

Where are you? they're kinda rare everywhere. I'm in Toronto.

[JSkeezLegacy92]

Regina Haha


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[Legacy777]

If the bulb spot was present on the cluster the easiest thing to do would be to tie in that light to the CEL since the CEL comes on and then turns off at start up. However, if you don't have a spot in the cluster then I'm not sure what to tell you other than swapping in a different cluster.

[JSkeezLegacy92]

So a little update. I took the cluster apart and found that there is some sort of motherboard for the airbag light itself. I'm guessing to determine whether or not the light should be on or off. So now the question is. Can I "scrap" that and solder a LED to the gasket on the back of the cluster? All I need the airbag light to do is go on and off with the CEL. The reason I am modifying it is because when I got everything for the airbag system hooked up, we turned the car on and it popped a bunch of fuses and a cloud of smoke emerged from under the dash. No idea where from. Plus it's scary to drive a car with a mocked up airbag system. Who knows what could trigger it.

[mike-tracy]

http://www.homemade-circuits.com/2012/0 ... d.html?m=1

You could build a circuit like that one. Down in the comments he explains how to modify it to turn off after a given time.