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Topic: Airbag LED flashing (Read 102 times) |
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szinyei
Junior Member
I'm a YaBB newbie!
Posts: 52
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Airbag LED flashing
« on: Jun 26th, 2026, 3:24pm » |
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Hi all,
The following MoT failure is on the agenda: the airbag LED started coming on, and when I gently pressed the horn, it went out. Sometimes it just went out from itself... Then it began flashing with the same high frequency as the road when it was rough.
After that, I tried replacing the airbag. I thought, based on my experience many years ago, that it might be the yellow connector to the airbag. Now, it flashes briefly, then turns off for about 3–4 seconds, and then starts again.
What could be the problem?
Thank you!
Best regards,
Csaba
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DavidBE
Full Member
1998 Ghia X 2.9 24V Auto Estate
Posts: 162
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Re: Airbag LED flashing
« Reply #1 on: Aug 6th, 2026, 6:49pm » |
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Have you found the cause? My Cossie estate has different symptoms: For 7 or 8 weeks, nothing. Then, for 3 or 4 days it will come on and stay on roughly every other trip. Then back to behaving for 7 or 8 weeks, then etc etc. It's been doing this for about 5 years! One of these years (possibly later this month) it wil do it during the MOT.
(My ABS and TCS lights, always together and when the car first reaches 15mph so the control unit does the rolling test, do exactly the same, alternating 7-8 weeks of no problem, then 3-4 days of coming on about every other trip, but not at the same tiem as the Airbag light does it.
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Torbayboy
Full Member
Posts: 905
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Re: Airbag LED flashing
« Reply #2 on: Aug 6th, 2026, 9:13pm » |
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Are you using the car regularly? These scorp's have a nasty habit of "Blackpool illuminations" dashboards, constant regular use tends to cure a lot of the dash problems, seek further on this site for dash/speedo assembly problems from a bad circuit board.
Having had many of these cars over the years,I learnt to live with some of them, but the easiest cure is regular use.
Stay safe
R  y.....still a child!  
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Cosworth Scorpio only 42 on the road now NOW down to 32.incl 25 ultimas
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DavidBE
Full Member
1998 Ghia X 2.9 24V Auto Estate
Posts: 162
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Re: Airbag LED flashing
« Reply #3 on: Aug 7th, 2026, 3:53am » |
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Regular, yes. But not extensive. Most weeks one round trip to the nearest town for a main food shop; and one 1 mile round trip to the village small Coop (I'm disabled enough I can't walk - or rather shuffle - that far.)
I do have a sense that when the airbag light decides to have its couple of days of misbehaving each couple of months it starts after I've been over a big bump or pothole, though I wouldn't swear to it. And as the ABS+TCS light shenanigans only kick in when the ABS module does the rolling test when the speed first reaches 15 mph after a start, that's harder to tie to any bump or anything on the previous drive. Given that both ABS and TCS lights always come on and go off on key-on, the static brake test always passes, and when this trouble strikes it is always both ABS and TCS and when reaching 15 mph after moving off, and that to me says trouble at one or both back wheels - presumably an out-of-range reading from one or both rear-wheel speed sensors when the rolling brake test runs on first hitting 15 mph. So I'm suspecting a dodgy electrical connection to one or both sensors that sometimes gets jogged into not connecting properly until some other jolt re-connects it again. When the Scorpio was away for several weeks having bodywork done and the radiator taken out and sent off to be rebuilt with a new core I did ask the garage to look for any bad looking connections to the rear wheel sensors, but just got a note saying the ABS and TCS lights didn't come on while they were looking at it - naturally, because the car has to reach 15 mph after that key-on for those lights to come on which it won't in the garage, and it only happens for a couple of days every couple• of months anyway; and the note says 'suspect rust build up on sensors'. If that means they've cleaned some rust off, then I have to wait and see - if they have fixed it I'm going to need 3 months of the problem not recurring to think it might be fixed. I don't think they got to looking at the airbag connections, and I have to confess I'm very wary of playing around with the the airbag. It's ironic, because the documentation says they have a useable life of 15 years, so my 28-year-old airbags probably won't work well enough to save me if it came to it, but I'm quite sure they would do enough to injure me if I set them off accidentally!
I can live with both problems, which are occasional enough they are just minor irritants. They just have me very anxious every MOT, as if either manifested then it would be a fail, and we know the garage don't know what the problem is to fix it. Next MOT is August 19th ...
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Jackattack2002
Newbie
Proud 24V owner
Posts: 50
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Re: Airbag LED flashing
« Reply #4 on: Sep 12th, 2026, 7:45pm » |
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Dried soldered joints on the rear of the instrument cluster was often the major culprit here. You have to strip it down to expose the rear of the printed circuit, then re-do the connections
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