Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Why has airbag idiot light been on?

I have a 1998.5 SVT which I bought in May of 2000. It currently has about 48K miles on it.

The other night I was out on an errand, and my airbag idiot light began coming on. It flashed about once every second for 5 times, then went out for a couple minutes, then repeated. I observed this for my round trip of about 12 miles. It was raining fairly heavy out -- I don't know if excess water can even reach circuitry for the airbag light. that's just me thinking out loud. Anyway, in the 3 years I've owned the car, this has never happened until now. Oh, and in the 3 days since, it has NOT happened again ... any ideas ?

cheers,
Dave G.

1998.5 Contour SVT, MTX, black with midnight blue interior, Michelin ZX 215/50-16s, resonator removed, dark window tint

That's the airbag monitor system telling you there's a diagnostic fault code for the airbag. It's usually a 2 digit code that describes the error it detected. I don't know what the codes are for a '98.5 but it indicates that something in the system may be getting flaky. Watch the lamp when you turn the key on and see if it flashes any codes, other than turning on continuously for several seconds during "prove out".

On a '95, it can be any one of a dozen and a half codes from 12 thru 53. You may have had some wiring getting weird at the front crash sensors because of the heavy rain. Rapid continuous flashing (no codes) means that all primary crash sensors are disconnected. A series of 5 "beeps" (sound, NOT lamp flashes) repeated 5 times, every 30 minutes while the ignition is ON indicates the airbag lamp is burnt out.

If you don't know what you're doing, airbags shouldn't be messed with since you can accidentally set them off.

Depending on the code you received...you may want to have your battery checked out. Could be a bad battery. I had a very similar situation, I didn't exactly get the code, it was either 3-5 or 5-3. Anyway, I had my battery tested at Sam's Club and it came up "bad". See this thread also: http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=322068&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=7&fpart=1