Airbag light blinking - Code 5

[Aaron]

I just bought a '90 Mustang GT and the airbag light is blinking. It blinks 5 times which supposedly means, "Air Bag Circuit or Crash Sensor Circuit- Shorted to Ground".
After disconnecting the battery and letting the backup battery drain of course, am I really just looking for a spot where a wire is hitting metal? Should I be looking for anything else? Any help finding the problem would be most appreciated.

 

[Aaron]

***UPDATE***

After pulling the battery and the battery holder out, I found a (not the) culprit. The airbag wires had been crimped pretty bad and both wires were hitting metal. As a temporary measure, I put electrical tape over the bad spots and after keeping the battery disconnected for 1/2 hour, hooked it back up again. I'm still getting a code 5

Could the bad spots on the wires still be causing problems, even though they aren't touching metal any more? They are still corroded.

Where else should I be looking?

 

[Aaron]

***Another Update***
I cut out the bad section of wire, and spliced the wires back together as a temporary measure. I hooked the battery up again and I am still getting a code 5
Is there ANYTHING else I should be looking for? I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out!

 

[Aaron]

Come on guys. Any suggestions on how to find this damn problem???

 

[Aaron]

TTT

 

[Aaron]

Anybody?

 

[5.0Droptop]

I had the same code on my 93. I checked everything like you are doing.

Heres what I learned.

1. If you remove the air bag lightbulb the flash goes away.

2. After removing the forementioned bulb, the flash is replaced by 5 dings emitted from deep in the dash, and it will ding 5 times 3 times in a row for a total of 15 dings everytime you start the car.

3. If you remove the airbag brain the flash goes away and the dings stop.

4. As you can see removing the blue air bag box from behind the hvac controls is the cheap solution and easy "fix"

5. From my research: most of the time the fox bags do not deploy anyhow.

6. Also if you have a flashing bag light or a solid light the bag system is disabled and will not work anyhow.

 

[Mr. Rustypwnz]

yeah I nailed a dude last year and mine didnt even flinch, my buddy's went off on his 5.0 and they came out pretty slow lol

 

[stang&2Birds]

5. From my research: most of the time the fox bags do not deploy anyhow.

Woha, Where did you hear that PURE AND TOTAL BS? Are those people SUPER RICH? If not, they are A) lying or B) STUPID for not suing Ford!

PLEASE post links, and site valid cases.

Also, do you have any idea at all of under what conditions a Fox Stang will deploy? Clearly you don't. Those conditions are very clearly defined in the Ford manual! Also, do you have any clue at all how many 80's and 90's Ford air bags have gone off in accidents, and the lives they saved? Again, you clearly do not!

Also, doing what you suggested is against Federal law and against many State and Local laws. If you're going to suggest and inform people of something that is illegal, then tell them that it is illegal!

FWIW: The Fox air bag crash sensors are not designed for crashes where a vehicle hits the side of the car straight on (at 90 degrees to the car). That's ~20% of the cases - far from "most" of the time!. Also, any impact that is at an angle to car will require higher speeds. In VERY general terms, the air bag will go off at a speed of 30mph to 50mph if the car hits a staionary object. If the obejct is moving in the same direction, the speed must be greater. If the object is moving at the car, the speed is lower. And, again, the angle of impact makes a difference.

If all of that is "too confusing", just consider that something like ?5K -10K? air bags are deployed each and every day in this country.

From:
Q&As: Airbags
Frontal airbags: In frontal crashes, airbags alone reduce driver fatalities by 29 percent and fatalities of right front passengers aged 13 and older by 32 percent. The fatality reduction in frontal crashes is larger for unbelted drivers (34 percent) as compared to belted drivers (21 percent). NHTSA estimates that the combination of an airbag plus a lap and shoulder belt reduces the risk of death by 61 percent compared with a 50 percent reduction for belts alone in frontal crashes.2



Aaron: Your best best is to yank the connector from the blue box, and the do a resistance check from the air bag, each sensor, and the safing sensor. That should show where the short is. Do a youtube and google search on
measuring resistance
Using a DVM
Using a VOM

 

[5.0Droptop]

Woha, Where did you hear that PURE AND TOTAL BS? Are those people SUPER RICH? If not, they are A) lying or B) STUPID for not suing Ford!

PLEASE post links, and site valid cases.

Also, do you have any idea at all of under what conditions a Fox Stang will deploy? Clearly you don't. Those conditions are very clearly defined in the Ford manual! Also, do you have any clue at all how many 80's and 90's Ford air bags have gone off in accidents, and the lives they saved? Again, you clearly do not!

Also, doing what you suggested is against Federal law and against many State and Local laws. If you're going to suggest and inform people of something that is illegal, then tell them that it is illegal!

FWIW: The Fox air bag crash sensors are not designed for crashes where a vehicle hits the side of the car straight on (at 90 degrees to the car). That's ~20% of the cases - far from "most" of the time!. Also, any impact that is at an angle to car will require higher speeds. In VERY general terms, the air bag will go off at a speed of 30mph to 50mph if the car hits a staionary object. If the obejct is moving in the same direction, the speed must be greater. If the object is moving at the car, the speed is lower. And, again, the angle of impact makes a difference.

If all of that is "too confusing", just consider that something like ?5K -10K? air bags are deployed each and every day in this country.

From:
Q&As: Airbags
Frontal airbags: In frontal crashes, airbags alone reduce driver fatalities by 29 percent and fatalities of right front passengers aged 13 and older by 32 percent. The fatality reduction in frontal crashes is larger for unbelted drivers (34 percent) as compared to belted drivers (21 percent). NHTSA estimates that the combination of an airbag plus a lap and shoulder belt reduces the risk of death by 61 percent compared with a 50 percent reduction for belts alone in frontal crashes.2



Aaron: Your best best is to yank the connector from the blue box, and the do a resistance check from the air bag, each sensor, and the safing sensor. That should show where the short is. Do a youtube and google search on
measuring resistance
Using a DVM
Using a VOM

I have read many threads right here on stang net that said "I wrecked my car and bags didnt go off."

IM SURE MANY DO DEPLOY.

Other than that statement everything else I wrote is true based on my knowledge.

If he has a trouble light the bag will not deploy.
If he cant find the solution if he unplugs the brain and removes the bulb it will stop flashing and still not deploy.

FWIW:
Its also against the law in most states to remove converters from your car, or to remove the smog equipment.

But people do it everyday.

Im not arguing right or wrong. Just telling AAron what I did to mine. If he dosent mind the bag not working and just wanted the light off. Either way the bag is inoperable untill (IF) he finds the problem.

 

[Aaron]

Shawn,

Thanks for the info. I knew what you were trying to tell me. I also agree with what Joe is trying to say - he just came off pretty harsh. Bottom line, if I just want the light to go away, I could yank out the light and airbag brain and the light won't go off, but I'd have no airbag and it's illegal. If I want the airbag to work properly (which is really what I am trying to do), I need to find the short and get it fixed.

Joe,

Thanks for the idea of checking everything from the harness. I didn't think to look at it that way. I'm on it!

 

[Aaron]

***Update***

I just got back in from hooking the computer back up. Earlier this morning, I soldered the splices I made earlier in the week and taped them up. Put the battery in and turned the key - now the damn airbag computer is beeping at me!!!! Supposedly this happens when the light goes out, but I haven't touched it! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!!

 

[5.0Droptop]

hehe sucks dont it.

 

[Aaron]

hehe sucks dont it.

You're telling me! I ran a continuity test on the dash light circuit and it's coming back fine. WTF!!!

 

[LaserSVT]

Now you know why they sold the car
+1 with Shawn
Also IMO if your wife is short and sits close to the wheel then shes better off without it. Yes airbags do save lives but really short people or people that sit close to the steering wheel all to often get seriously injured from the older generations of air bags.

 

[5.0Droptop]

Double a ron

I did all the same stuff. My last guess was that th eputer for the bag system was defective and I gave up.

Ford said it could be as much as 500.00 to fix it. with out diagnosing it and digging in they wouldnt know for sure. I wasnt spending that much to fix the system thats why disabled the whole system.

 

[Aaron]

Now you know why they sold the car
+1 with Shawn
Also IMO if your wife is short and sits close to the wheel then shes better off without it. Yes airbags do save lives but really short people or people that sit close to the steering wheel all to often get seriously injured from the older generations of air bags.

Good point. My wife is pretty short and sits very close to the steering wheel. I'm just worried about inspection time. If they notice the light not going on during diagnostics...
The airbag itself doesn't bother me. If it did bother me, I wouldn't own my '87.

 

[90GT306]

I had a similar problem with the air bag in my 90 GT. (can't remember exactly how many flashes) It's been about 10-12 years ago but if I recall I think they replaced something in the steering wheel.

 

[Aaron]

I had a similar problem with the air bag in my 90 GT. (can't remember exactly how many flashes) It's been about 10-12 years ago but if I recall I think they replaced something in the steering wheel.

That would be the clock spring. If my clock spring was bad, my horn wouldn't work, and it does, so I don't think it was the clockspring. Thanks for the suggestion though

 

[Aaron]

***Update***

I had enough other work to do on the car so I gave up on the airbag problem for a while, but I started back up today so here's where I am at:

I bought a used airbag sensor to replace the one with bad wiring....just in case something went bad when the sensor wires grounded themselves to the body (read above posts). After replacing it, I hooked the battery back up and checked the system. First, I got 10 air bag light flashes, and then the airbag computer started beeping at me in series of 5 beeps each group. If the airbag light is working, why the hell is the system beeping at me??? Of course, the 5 beeps mean the system is still grounding out, but I see no problems with the wiring up until it meets the main harness. I really don't want to tear into the main harness and besides, I doubt there's a short in the main harness anyway.

What next?

Out of curiosity, I unhooked the airbag computer and attempted to start the car to see what happened. Well, it wouldn't start because the fuel pump doesn't turn on! Does fuel pump power go through the airbag computer?!?!? I'm letting the car sit for another 1/2 hour to drain the backup battery and I'm going to hook the computer back up again and see if the fuel pump turns on when I go to start the car.