Air Bag light blinks-I read repair manual and searched...

[EW]

1995 Nissan 240SX 110K on the clock. Air bag light blinks.I called Grubbs Nissan which is about a block away from me and asked "how much to diagnose the air bag light flashing?" They said $102.After reading the 95 240SX factory repair manual (thanks camel-towing.com) and following directions on page BF-98 , I have determined that the "Diagnosis sensor is out of order" which means 7 flashes of the light. I have removed the back seat. Everything looks ok with the unit. A. On page BF-98, it tells how to go from user mode to present diagnosis mode. Does doing so "reset" the brain? If not, what procedure does?B. Can the dealer reset air bag codes that I can not?C. Is there a dealer in DFW who does not want $102 to plug a reader into my fuse box for one minute to tell me what I already know?D. Has anyone had this serviced at the dealer and if so how much did you pay?I may try the company listed below to repair the brain if necessary ($150).http://www.airbags-oem.com/repair.htmlThanks for the help.Eric

[NISTECH]

Eric have you had your battery go dead recently or had your battery get extreamly low on voltage? If so that is likely what has happened. Although the service manual says to replace it , its not really neccesary in this case as the control unit saw less then 9 volts while the key was in the on position which caused it to think it had an internal failure.Unfotunitly i only know of one way to erase the code and that is with consult. A trick you can try is to disconnect the battery over night and see if it resets it. I have had that happen a couple times so its worth a shot.

[EW]

Thanks.Before I picked up this car, it had the batery out of it for a day.This thing had no fuse in the kick panel fusebox air bag location so the airbag light was on constantly. In attempting to diagnose the airbag problem, I replaced the fuse, which makes the light blink, but I have not let it sit overnight with the battery disconnected since I replaced the fuse. I will try it. After that, I'm going to have to bribe some nissan tech to get this thing fixed.

[NISTECH]

BEER GOOD,, oh never mind your in dallas..lol

[EW]

Well, my wallet is $101.89 lighter after the dealer confirmed my earlier findings. I am going to send the control module to http://www.airbags-oem.com/repair.html to have it serviced. He is in DFW and said $150 to fix it as opposed to the Nissan quote of $969! I'll update when I get the unit back and plug it in.Eric

[NISTECH]

hold up, did they erase the code? If so and your light is off, let it go untill the light comes on again, chances are it wont as long as the battery doesnt go dead. If te light comes back by all means send it in. Curious? what stage was the code stored in,"current or past memory? If it was in current it is failing on the spot, if its in past it means the code was set sometime ago. The light illuminates in both cases. When erased it moves to record, the last stage of 3 stages for air bag codes.

[EW]

I'll look at the work order tomorrow. They were not very descriptive but they did say the main unit was defective.
Modified by EW at 8:41 PM 6/1/2005