Airbag light and smell?

My air bag light on my 95 just came on a couple days ago is that something to be worried about? And also there is a bad smell when I'm driving I can't smell it with the windows up but when I roll down my driver side window I can smell a bad sewage type smell. Does anybody have a clue what that might be?

 

Airbag lights scare me.....Took mine to Toyota to put it on their computer..I had a bad control module..Smell could be wet carpet maybe? Check for leaks

 

The airbag light is not something that will prevent your truck from running, but it causes a potential safety issue for you or anyone driving the truck because the airbags might not deploy in a crash

Anyway, there's lot of things that can cause the airbag light to come on.
What the SRS sytems does, each time you start the truck, is to check for electrical continuity in the system. If it finds out there's no continuity somewhere, the light will come on. Bad continuity is most of the time caused by a bad sensor:

Steering wheel clockspring (also known as spiral cable)
- Though when this one is going bad, it is usually accompanied by other symptoms such as horn not working, cruise control problems, turn signals coming on for no reason, and of course, the airbag light (one giveaway sign is when any of these problems happens especially when the steering wheel is being rotated)

crash sensors at the front of the truck (they sometimes corrode and go bad)

seat belt pretensionners

passenger airbag on/off switch

sensors under the seats

airbag ECU or airbags themselves, but it is very rare to see these failing

to be sure of which one it can be, get the codes pulled out of the truck

 

The air bag light isn't coming on and staying on it's came on twice in the last 3 days and then will go off the next couple trips. I don't think the smell is coming from the inside of my truck because I only smell it when the window is down not when I'm just sitting in the truck. Iv been told it could be a bad catalytic converter

 

My 95 airbag light came on the other week before a wheeling trip.

Once I got to our meeting spot and started it up again the light was off. It came on and off a few times over the last couple weeks and I'm not sure what's going on with it.

Over on TTORA I read a couple posts about it, but I haven't chased it down more than that. The posts mentioned a 10 year interval for the SRS or airbag that is part of the trucks normal routine?

Like I said, I haven't tracked it down more than that, nor have I taken it to the dealer.

I also read the same reports as mentioned by a previous poster, about it being a little sketchy to drive around w the airbag light on. Maybe it won't deploy?

Sounds like there are a few leads to start with.

 

I have read a lot about the airbags not deploying, and then the news about the airbags themselves causing serious injury to drivers. Does anyone know how to turn off and remove the complicated and unreliable system of airbags entirely?.

 

That Smell. Rotten Eggs = the smell from your exhaust when the catalytic converter is failing.

 

I havn't read all posts here yet but what you could be smelling is the amonia nitrate/amonia perchlorate breaking down. Get it checked out because this could be dangerous.

 

Um, I'm not sure I would trust the SRS in a 22 year old vehicle.

Like stated above, connectors are the weakest link. If the light is intermittently being lit, it means a sensor is producing a slight increase in resistance. The ECU turns on the light.

That 3 rd post is exactly what i would have written.

 

Does the light have to actually be on to pull a code or does the computer show recent codes? It doesn’t happen every time it’s very random. Sometimes it’s just dim and some times it’s either full bright or not on at all

 

So if it’s intermittent what should be the first check or replacement?

 

As far as the bad continuity which sensor and where should I look for that. And as far as the clock spring going bad would that cause the light to stay on or could the clockspring also cause the light to be intermittent?

 

I'd check the connectors on the frame. They are exposed to the most adverse conditions.

Start making notes of the air bag light compared to what the weather is like.

Example:. Weather is hot and humid. Light comes and goes.

 

Clock springs are usually all or nothing. I don't feel it's the issue. If you want to eliminate the clock spring, they only cost $30 on eBay. They are easy to change. I have no fear of the Chinese knock off clock springs. Been using them for years.

 

yeah, the light must be on in order to be able to pull the error code.

1995 truck? hmm, there is a good chance that intermittent light is caused by a bad airbag computer sadly
Probably something like a capacitor that went bad inside the computer...
The good news is that it is not that hard to replace a capacitor on a circuit board but we have yet to know if it is indeed a capacitor that is bad or something else on the board... Only way to find out is by having someone tear the computer open and check what's wrong

the light will not be intermittent. Once the truck detects it is bad, the light will stay on untill you clear it from memory... and come back whenever you trigger it again by turning the steering wheel

A clockspring (aka spiral cable) is actually a ribbon cable that coils on itself and extends when the steering wheel is turned and the problems/issues will depend on which strands are bad/broken on the ribbon. So you can get a bad clockspring without triggering the airbag light but still have issues with the horn, turn signals and/or cruise control

 

Yes, and the Dealer wants $110 just for diagnostic and if the airbag computer has a bad capacitor, I assume the diagnostic/code will likely indicate a bad computer, but will not identify a bad capacitor. Dealer will want to replace the computer, not the capacitor. Oh, well!

 

Why would you take a bag of cash to the dealer to have a grease monkey pull the airbag codes when you could pull the codes yourself with a paperclip?

 

Only if you like Air Bags it would be good to know the fault.

That time of the year if your in the country .

Clean the pens spread it on the fields .

Some cities do the same with there Solids .

Someone has it in for you and sprays under your Truck when the truck is parked