Since the weather has now turned cold the air bag light will illuminate on cold starts when the car has sat outside for extended periods of time. For example it's been in the 20's and sometimes even colder and I work an 8 hour shift. When I start my car to leave at 10oclock at night my air bag light will be on. When the car sits in my garage overnight the light will not come on because it's not cold enough in the garage. 30's is not even cold enough for the light to come on. So besides the cold conditions stated above, the light is never on and it only stays on for the drive that was started after the extended time outside in very cold conditions.
The car is a 2007 Type S 6mt with only 9,000 miles. Never been involved in any accidents of any sort. Car is all original. Navigation says airbag system may not be functioning correctly and has the number 42-1.
I have heard some seat belt buckle issues will cause that light to come on, but after messing with the belt buckle I cannot manipulate the light at all. Unfortunately if it is air bag related the Acura dealership says that is not covered by any warranty.

 

dang, sorry to hear this happen on a mint condition car. it's probably seat belt related, or even the worst case a bad srs module

 

Yeah it's no big deal I figured I would just see if anyone has had something similar in cold conditions happen. It's probably the first time the car has ever been in temps like that and it's saying what the hell lol. My wife's accord had the air bag light come on and it was the drivers side seat belt buckle and was covered under warranty. Unfortunately the dealer says if it's not seat belt related it won't be covered. Just wish I knew before going to the dealer if I can expect to be shelling out some serious cash, or if it will be covered. Autozones scanning took does not give air bag codes, or atleast that's what they said on the phone. Anyone else know of a way to retrieve an airbag code on my own?

 

that code is for no signal from the front right impact sensor

 

Ok great information thank you. When I called the dealership he told me 42-1 was just a general code that means it could be any number of things. Was he just feeding me BS and that code actually does mean one specific thing? If what you said is correct then atleast I have an idea of what I'm dealing with.
So would an impact sensor issue be covered on any sort of warranty on a vehicle that is no longer under the factory bumper to bumper? My car was put in service in late 06, but mileage wise it's only at 9k. So I'm way out of the factory warranty based on time.

Thanks very much for the info.

James

 

I'm having a similar intermittent Air Bag light issue. I can manipulate the light sometimes by not buckling my driver side seat belt before driving the car, then while in motion fastening the seat belt. This works some of the time, but not every time. I'm very interested in finding a remedy for this problem.

 

I had a similar issue this morning. After my car sat in the cold -20 deg F weather overnight, my airbag light came on this morning. This is the first time this has happened. Along with the airbag lights - all the screens (audio, information screen, etc) were all very slow to respond because of the arctic cold weather. Hopefully the airbag light is gone when it warms up.

 

I had the same airbag light this morning. I drove for about 25 minutes before stopping for gas. After I started it up at the gas station, the light wen out. I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend. Supposed to be -28 again tomorrow.

 

Seems like that's the same issue with my airbag issue cause of the cold..

 

I had the same exact issue this morning. 15 Degrees overnight. After 15 min, stopped and restarted, warning gone.

 

Only 8 below zero this morning and no airbag light...maybe 20 below is the threshold for mine to come on..

 

I have had the air bag light come on 3 different times in the last 2 months. It has been really cold lately. Single digits on some days 30's other times. The light came on tonight after I made a stop for something to eat. This was the third stop I made. I park my car in my garage at night so I'll bet the air bag light will be off in the morning. Each time the light has come on I messed with the seat belt and that didn't change anything. But when I turn the car off, the next time I start it the light will be out. This has happened all three times. Any ideas??

 

I had this problem on my 04 where the air bag light sometimes would come on. didn't want to be in a car with malfunctioned air bag. so sent to dealer for check up. turned out it wasn't airbag. it was the driver seat belt buckle wasn't registering status to computer. they replaced it under lifetime warranty. that was when I found out all car seat belt systems come with lifetime warranty in the united states.

 

It's possibly your seatbelt sensor. Took mine to dealer n they fixed it for free. I noticed this problem when it was cold. Not the problem is fixed

 

Wow, I see I'm far from alone here. Is there a way to tell for sure if it is the seatbelt sensor?

 

You could mess around and click and unclick the seatbelt to see if it goes away. Or go to the dealer? Mine does this rarely and sometimes it goes away if I click in the seatbelt and sometimes it doesn't. I'm not too worried about it. Oh and maybe it's from when I drilled out my airbag screw. lol

 

Oh cool nice to see my thread has been getting some interest with all this cold around the country. My Type S still does the same thing. Air bag light on when it sits in cooooold weather.
Just curious for the guys that had it fixed at the dealer (CLOS_TL), did you find out what code the car was giving you, or do you not have nav? My TL's nav system says 42-1 something to do with front right impact sensor apparently. When I mess with the seat belt buckle I cannot manipulate anything with the airbag light. So with that said could my issue still be related to the seat belt buckle? Like you guys said if its seat belt related that is covered 100% under warranty. If its impact sensor related that is not covered at all.

On a sort of related subject, my wife had the airbag light come on in her 04 Accord and I was able to manipulate that light with the drivers side seat buckle and sure enough that was the problem. Fixed free of charge. Cant do that in my TL so im not certain the problem lies in the belt buckle, but you still never know I guess.

 

I went to Continental Acura once to see if they would fix the seatbelt thingy and they wanted to charge me $100 or so. I was like pffftt, I'll live with it. Where did your wife go? I'm sure they would do Acuras too?

 

She took her Accord to Valley Honda in Naperville and it was fully covered we paid nothing. The same should have happened at Continental Acura, but apparently they are idiots...atleast if the problem was infact seatbelt related.
If the front right impact sensor is easy to get at I would mess with it myself, but I haven't looked into that yet.

 

Update after the drive home...

Code is: 41-1 air bag
When I started it up after it sitting outside for 8 or 9 hours when it was around 2 degrees out, the light was on. I played around with the seat belt, nothing seemed to get the light to turn off. When I disconnected my seatbelt, I did get the seatbelt light alongside the air bag light.

Made a stop about 10 minutes into the drive, was there for a good half hour or so, and when I went back out there and started it up, no light, nor any light the rest of the way home.

If this is only an extreme cold thing, maybe I'll just leave it alone.

 

I also had this air bag light problem last winter- what the problem was in my case- the red top battery that i had needed to be replace since it was running on only 60-70%. Tried to charge it and it was getting only up to 80% charge. Got new battery and have not had the air bag light come on ever since. Maybe coincidence

 

Either its because something else was wrong with your car or like you said a coincidence, but that cant be my problem because I have a new OEM battery in my car.

 

check all of your sensor connections after disconnecting battery and waiting 15 minutes. might want to test the sensors for proper functionality when cold.

 

I had a somewhat similar problem the other day. I think I need a need battery because my car has been struggling to start in the cold, even in my garage. The other day when I started my car it took two attempts. Then when it went on there were like 4 different lights that stayed on until I turned the car off. Another thing my car does when it's really cold... the left mirror starts going spastic and keeps going as far as it can to one side and then clicks until you hit the mirror switch.

The car does funny things when the battery isn't working properly.

 

My airbag warning light also came on once when the temp was below zero, and this happened to a friend with the same model. Sounds like a connection that gets loose due to cold contraction.

 

the front impact sensors are behind the front bumper, a very easy job once the bumper is off. I think it MIGHT be accessible without bumper removal if you jack up the car and go from under, but honestly it's probably easier to just take off the bumper

 

I had some free time today and decided to take the front bumper off to try and locate the front impact sensors. Since this has been an absolute terrible winter with the frigid temps still here even almost into March that light is coming on almost on a daily basis on the real cold days. As mentioned above the code im getting is 42-1 which someone above said that means no signal from front right impact sensor.
I located the sensors and am trying to think of what the best thing to do is. Do I just disconnect the sensor and inspect the harness and connections and clean them if necessary or just fiddle with the harness and see if that does anything? I guess all I can really do is simply inspect and clean, clear the code then park the car outside for a while and see if it comes back on. If that doesnt do it then its most likely either a faulty sensor or some other problem elsewhere in the harness.

I will keep you guys posted.

 

i wouldnt necessarily think its a dirty connector unless you took the car off-roading. since your car is like what, 10k miles now? it shouldnt have anywhere the amount of dirt needed to make a connection go bad.

the impact sensors themselves arent too expensive you can replace them just to give it a try. just disconnect the battery before unplugging anything.

 

Removed the sensor inspected connections and pretty much what paperboy stated. The parts looked brand spankin new and so did the connections. So I reinstalled it, cleared the code and let the car bask in some nice -1 degree temps outside for a few hours. The light came back on. So I guess the next step is to just replace the sensor with a new one. I searched the part number and its only like 30 some bucks. I looked at both front sensors and they are identical part numbers, maybe I will try swapping them to opposite sides and see if it throws a code for the other side. Doing that would basically isolate that sensor as being the culprit. I will probably do that tomorrow since the bumper is still off the car and its only 2 bolts for each sensor.

I will report back once again.. :-)

 

yes swapping sensors will tell you if it is the sensor or something else. if it is the sensor, the code will follow it.

 

unplug battery while you messing with that. airbags may deploy even when car is parked.

 

Possible good news. I swapped sensors and left the car out for hours this morning. At first the light didnt come on but finally it did after just a couple minutes. Sure enough its a different code now. It threw code 41-1. Can anyone verify what that code means compared to the original 42-1 that I was getting prior to swapping sensors. If 41-1 means front left then I may have just found the problem to be a faulty sensor.

Let me know...

Thanks guys!


Edit: Just did a quick google search and sure enough 41-1 says front left impact sensor no signal. Awesome!! Time to order a new 30 dollar sensor and problem should be fixed :-)

 

My local dealership has one sensor in stock im gonna go pick it up now and throw it in since the bumper is still off. Even though I havent officially finished the job im pretty convinced since the code followed that sensor that after I put the new sensor in the job will be fixed.

So I think its safe to say that for all the guys on this thread that have this problem its a EASY and pretty cheap fix!!! If your code is 41-1 its the front left sensor, if its 42-1 its the front right. The impact sensor part number for the 07/08 TL is 77930-SEP-P82 and is identical for left and right side. Sorry I dont have part number for the 04-6 guys.

Hope this helps someone else out!

 

05-06 TL: 77930-SEP-P81
04 TL: 77930-SEP-A02 (replaced discontinued 77930-SEP-A01)

 

Just wanted to follow up with you guys and verify this infact did fix the issue. My car sat outside in the cold for 8 hours at work today. I started the car up at 10pm and drove home and no light. Easy fix!! :-)

 

Mine does the same thing now. It only comes stays on when it sits over night and then goes off. What did you do to fix it?

 

get the code and it'll narrow down the issue first

 

The Reason is because of the cold for my 07 20 degrees isnt cold enough to pop the light but when it hit the - double digits the past 2 days it happened both days, then again mine is older and I've kept up with maintnance almost perfectly so that also has a factor but with older cars especially acuras they dont like the cold even more so if their high mileage, there srs system tends to act funny when it gets cold same the only reason id suspect anything is if the check engine light is on even after warming up your car. If it turns off then you know its the cold. Hopefully this helps in any way, if have a 07 acura mdx and this is the coldest weather she's seen in a minute. At the end of the day tho its a acura so no matter what she gonna start right up thats what I love about acuras