[dropcap]D[/dropcap]ear Editor,
I am a regular reader of your very informative magazine. I drive a 2005 Honda Accord. I shall be very grateful if you will please respond urgently to this request. I read your recent report about vehicle recall, especially the point that vehicles in hot region like Nigeria may be affected and I am a bit concerned. How will I know that my airbag is not in good order?
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Rika Muhammed
rika.trmuhammed2050@yahoo.com
ANSWER
Dear Rika,
Whenever you turn on the car’s ignition, the car’s on-board computer (brain box) checks the airbag. As a sign of that test actually happening, the light comes on for few seconds and then goes off. If that is what your car does, it means your airbags are in order.
If the light stays on or stays off permanently, that is a sign that the airbags are disabled or faulty. In that case, if there is an accident, the airbags would not deploy and hence not protect either the driver or other occupants of the vehicle.
When a motorist experiences the foregoing, either of two things might have occurred.
Airbag might not have been properly reset after accidentally deployed. In that case, the light would stay on. If your airbag stays on, please note that you are as good as having no airbag protection in case an accident occurs.
If at certain point it ought to have activated, but it could not or it failed to, the light would stay on. It means also that there is a problem. The airbags will need either resetting or change. But it is advisable that any thing having to do with airbag reset or check should be taking to expert or franchise dealer, because airbags contain explosives.
What to Do
Take the car to a well equipped workshop or franchise dealer. In this case the mechanic will run a diagnostic on the airbag ECU (Electronic Control Unit), which is where all the data is stored.
In case your airbags have not become activated or discharged but you’re still seeing an airbag light, there is likely some sort of a computer problem. This could be either that the airbag system has become deactivated and faulty for some reasons, or that the computer has simply made an error and that the airbags are correct.
What to Avoid
[box type=”warning” align=”alignleft” ]If the airbag light is on, it means that the airbag will not be able to deploy in the event of an accident. This is a dangerous condition. Motorist needs to avoid driving the vehicle at all, except taking it to the nearest expert, who is able to attend to it.[/box]
