Airbag Went Off

[jjester6000]

You ever have one of those days where you walk out to start your truck in the morning only to find this?

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Now I need a new dash and passenger side airbag at minimum. Could anyone tell me why this might've happended? The airbag light had come on in the week leading up to this happening, but I didn't think much of it as it would come an go intermittently since I bought the truck.

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I just want to know what steps I should take to make sure that the whole airbag system is in working order, so god forbid if do actually wreck the truck I might actually live.

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For any of you who don't know, this is my '98 Chevrolet Subruban K1500.

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The thing that is worrying to me is that my daily driver (A 2001 S10 Blazer) also has an airbag light.

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So I may drive 'Ol Yeller for the time being so I don't run the risk the airbag randomly going off in the blazer.

 

[SUBURBAN5]

Maybe a short? Or over energized? I think there's some info in the manuals about light being on and diagnostics.
On the other hand at least nobody was in it. The part discontinued and if that were mine I would install a dash cubby from a 1 ton truck . Bolts right into place and looks factory

 

[Caman96]

The airbag light had come on in the week leading up to this happening

I guess it wasn’t kidding around. And it was just the passenger side?

 

[Hipster]

An airbag light indicates a fault with the system, whatever it may be needs to be scanned and addressed. Faulty clockspring, backfeed, faulty sensor, etc. can set them off. You neglected it.

 

[jjester6000]

You neglected it.

I accept that, and I'm going to learn from this and get my Blazer fixed pronto. I guess I'm going to have to shell out the $170 to have the dealer scan the airbag system.

 

[Hipster]

I accept that, and I'm going to learn from this and get my Blazer fixed pronto. I guess I'm going to have to shell out the $170 to have the dealer scan the airbag system.

Go to a bodyshop, they can do it and normally don't charge $120/hr, call a couple.

 

[jjester6000]

Go to a bodyshop, they can do it and normally don't charge $120/hr, call a couple.

At all the shops I worked at, we just farmed all the airbag stuff out to a guy, but that might not be the case for all the shops in the area.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

if that were mine I would install a dash cubby from a 1 ton truck . Bolts right into place and looks factory

Didn't some (all?) of the ~1994 up though 1995 have the cubby there too? IIRC airbags weren't std on passenger side until 1996+.

Maybe OP can find a broader range of donor trucks.

 

[Hipster]

Didn't some (all?) of the ~1994 up though 1995 have the cubby there too? IIRC airbags weren't std on passenger side until 1996+.

Maybe OP can find a broader range of donor trucks.

I think it had to do with weight ratings as well. 8600k didn't need passenger bags etc for certain years. It get's bit technical.

 

[someotherguy]

I accept that, and I'm going to learn from this and get my Blazer fixed pronto. I guess I'm going to have to shell out the $170 to have the dealer scan the airbag system.

I bought a lower-end scanner that was capable of reading the airbag codes for my '06. I don't know if it would work for your '98. On my truck I was able to determine the fault was one of the front impact sensors (and which one it was) so I could replace it without any guesswork. Was worth the $100-ish the scanner cost, because obviously I can use it for more than just that task.

BTW the scanner I got, which I'm not necessarily recommending (it's not the greatest but is "OK") is the Launch CRP123. Got it on an amazon "lightning deal" back in '21 and was $112 with tax. I just checked and it's still a "lightning deal" LOL .. you might give it a look and see if you can determine whether it will read your trucks. One usage of it would pay for itself.. and it sounds like you need it at least twice.

Richard