Buying a car with air bag light on

skatz1, Jul 2, 7:08am
Should I go there or no ? i will be importing it but the air bag light is on. easy fix or will this be major ?

intrade, Jul 2, 7:17am
you do know it has to pass emission testing on exhaust euro4 emission and comply to all rules to frontal impact standards so this could easy turn in to a major expense or a scraped parts car you import.

budgel, Jul 2, 8:41am
It depends on the brand of car. Do an online search for that particular problem with that particular model. It can sometimes be quite a minor fix.

treachug, Jul 2, 8:45am
Depends on lots of scenarios. Is the car damaged? Has the car been damaged? what sort of car? Could be as simple as the wiring under the seat damaged to the module or clock-spring or more defective. Can be simple or costly. I bought in a car from Japan in '08 (with light damage in rear) that had airbag light on as well. Both pretensioners had deployed from doing their job correctly. Found one genuine new one on ebay in Europe for $80 (fluke) & bought another genuine new one in the uk for $120. Both bargains, saved me approx $600 from buying from nz dealer. Module was stuffed, new module was $1500 in nz, googled & sent module to aussie & got it cleared & re-written for $180.00 returned in a week. So yes, can be cheap or can be expensive.

brapbrap8, Jul 2, 9:13am
Could be a matter of wiggling a connector, or as much as replacing the entire wiring loom.

tamarillo, Jul 2, 11:25pm
As others said it's a possible minefield. It might be simply that someone disconnected it before disconnecting battery and now light is on (that happened to me on BMW) and it just needs to be plugged in and fault cleared. Or it might need a new airbag which may or may not be easy.
I'd certainly allow some money for it and consider it a gamble.

elect70, Jul 3, 2:34am
Often cause is the seat belt tensioners connections under the seat but still needs dealer to reset /fix

lookoutas, Jul 3, 8:07am
It must be a black one.

maxxtra, Jul 4, 7:09am
You can possible buy a plug in device that acts like any air bag light on the dash when you turn ignition on. off overseas websites . but you would still not have a working air bags system

rbd, Jul 4, 7:17am
And after you sell it and the next owners die after the airbags don't go off in a crash you could be charged with manslaughter.

Some of the stuff you read on here.

jason_247, Mar 25, 1:32am
the problem is you do have a working airbag system but seeing as the weight sensor is disconnected it think a heavy adult is in the seat regardless.

so when you have a 10 year old there and they get full force airbag wreck their face its not nice.

whilst the factory system detects lighter weight and uses a smaller charge or doesnt set it off at all