moakes

I have an ’03 with 213K miles (mine since 90K). Live in Atlanta, usually garaged. However, for the past 10 days, I have had to park outside temporarily. On Tuesday AM when I left for work (about 30F degrees) the airbag light on the dash was on and stayed on. When I got to the office, I turned the truck off, and then restarted, and the light went out. When I left for the day to drive home, the light did not come on. Same thing Wednesday AM, Same thing Thurs AM. Also ran some errands in the day/evening on some of these days and it only seemed to be on in the morning (when it was the coldest and the truck had sat the longest without being run). Upon searching the forum, I see some airbag recall conversations, but these seem like ’04 or greater. Has anyone see this behavior? Suggestions?

chiph9

I'd look into the age of the battery - they'll drop voltage as they get older, and the computers in modern cars really want correct voltage to operate correctly.

Also - are you moving the seat when you get in/out? There's a cable under the front seats to the side airbags and sometimes they develop a fault, especially if they get flexed a lot.

Chip H.

moakes

Thanks, Chip. You are always so good about offering suggestions. I never thought about the "voltage option". I'll check that. I'm pretty much the only driver, so don't move the seat much, but did see some threads on that. I think voltage is my first stop. Thanks again.

DiabloX22

Chip is right on, there is a code for the seatbelt "squib" basically need a new seat belt release assembly by the seat. Electricity ALWAYS takes the easiest path, it was going to happen sooner or later. I had to do mine.

moakes

Thanks, but can you help me understand. Are you saying that Chip is right that it is the "battery voltage" or that the "wiring assembly" is the problem?

chiph9

Wiring assembly. I was thinking it was the side airbag in the seatback, but it sounds like it's the seatbelt pretensioner in the B pillar (it fires in an accident to tighten the belt so you don't slip underneath it).

A thought - see if you have had the airbag controller recall performed. Looks like the defective software could accidentally fire the pretensioners as well as the curtain airbags. You might even get this repaired for free by Lexus.

https://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/04/...urtain-airbag/

Chip H.

moakes

OK, got it. The wiring assemble.
I checked and the recall is '04 and greater, mine is '03.
Traveling now, but will get this checked and report back in the next week or so. Thanks!