Waukesha

My sister owned it before me and she was the second owner. No know accidents. I'm guessing the issue is related to my cluster removal. I triggered something or the LEDs are causing some kind amp draw or false error.

brianmystery

when you changed the bulbs, did you remove negative terminal, or you just kept the battery on ?

whitetiger5

Seems like there are a few things you can check. Possibly you blew a fuse when changing bulbs? Also; if I read it correctly, the side airbag bulb’s circuit may throw an SRS error if the bulb is blown; if you replaced it with a bulb that’s too low in wattage it may have blown and opened the circuit causing an error code.

Waukesha

No, no I did not disconnect the battery. Is there a likely result from not disconnecting the battery? I will review Whitetiger's procedure and see if I learn anything. Thanks all.

Waukesha

Thank you for the diagnosis procedure. According to the above procedure the OPDS needs replacing. A few questions to all about this:

1) The side air bag bulb is working, but does anyone think replacing it with the original OEM bulb would fix this?
2) After reviewing the OPDS replacement procedure, it is not clear why I need to remove the seat. The OPDS is removed from the back of the chair, so as long as one can disconnect the connectors, I don't need why I need to remove the seat.
2a) Can anyone confirm the OPDS is in the DRIVER'S seat? The instructions just reference the "seat."
3) After the new OPDS is installed it needs to be initialized with a "Honda PGM Tester." Is that a special tool only the dealer has so I will have to take this to a dealer even if I replace this myself?
4) Was this caused by not disconcerting the battery before removing the gauge cluster? If yes, why/how?

Thanks again to all for all the input.

whitetiger5

I’d give that (placing the previous bulb) a shot before extensive SRS component replacement.


Disconnecting doesn’t impact bulb replacement if you’ve disconnected the cluster prior to swapping out bulbs.

If it’s indeed a valid code; very rare that this occurs. But I suppose it does happen. Could be that the passenger side airbag bulb was burnt out this whole time? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Waukesha

Whitetiger! If you're ever in Wisconsin I owe you a beer. I put the OEM bulbs back in the SRS and Side Airbag sockets, reset, and SRS stays off! I haven't taken it for a drive but at least I know my OPDS is not broken. If this status remains for a few drives I'll update again to close this out.....again.

whitetiger5

Goes on then goes off (problem solved)? or stays off completely ( both bulbs happen to be burnt out)? sorry, I have to ask!

Waukesha

Sorry I wasn't clear. Goes on for 6 seconds then off. i.e. it is working properly. I still haven't taken it for a drive yet, but this tells me if there is a persistent problem, its probably just something bulb related and my SRS system isn't blown.

whitetiger5

That sounds good! can you share a little more about the bulb you put in there? Was it to a different spec, or LED?

Waukesha

Within just the gauge cluster I replaced the indicator light (i.e. idiot lights) bulbs with these white T5 LED replacement bulbs:
and replaced the gauges with the purple equivalent. According to Amazon these are 1.5W. I just reviewed Acura website and the originals were 1.4W, so these do draw slightly more current.

Waukesha

I am officially closing out this thread with positive results. I completed a few trips and no SRS light so I believe all is good. So I am adding one more lesson learned to post #33:

7) The SRS system is somehow effected by the after market LED bulbs I used (post #51) in the SRS and Airbag sockets and cause a 15-2 error (post #39). After replacing those two with the original OEM bulbs, and resetting the SRS light, it no longer causes any errors. This does not make any sense to me that the bulb circuit is integrated directly with the sensors? If any engineers reading this understands this, please share.

I hope this all helps the next guy and thanks again to all that contributed. Happy New year.

whitetiger5

Yes, you have a safety system that is supposed to alert you if there is a fault in the system that could result in serious injury or death. The system includes being aware if it is able to alert you that you could be injured or killed; hence the added level of safety. SRS light telling you "hey that other bulb isn't working!"

This is very similar to the reason why the car displays all the lights when you first start the car; so that the user is aware if the bulbs are burnt out or not working; aircraft feature an explicit switch to check this and is part of a preflight checklist that pilots go through.

The indicator safety check is probably current/resistance based and an LED bulb does not allow current to flow in both directions; so when your system checked with current flow through that circuit; and the bulb (was more than likely place backwards) you get a fault and warning from the SRS light.

brianmystery

How much is that bulb? In Canada, the Honda "Stealership" told me it is CAD 18.00 for 1 bulb. What a rip-off

zeta

iTrader: (1)

^

The vendor link below is better than the one I used in post #2. This one actually clearly highlights said part on the parts diagram, lol.
Meter Components - 2001 Acura TL 4 Door TL (NAVI) KA 5AT (acurapartswarehouse.com)

brianmystery

I tried all of them. However, they don’t ship to Canada, just USA only .

Waukesha

I paid USD$10 per bulb from the dealer. The shipping was so expensive from the websites, I paid the same amount at the dealer and got the bulbs the next day.