Airbag light light (seat belt bad) on 01 Ranger???

[blaisa]

I just bought a 2001 Ranger with 4.0,manual 4x4 and 4 doors which had been in a light drivers front corner accident. Airbag light is on and code states drivers side seat belt is unservicable. Making me think it had one of those automatic tensioner seat belt for front end collisions. Pulled the seat belt assembly out and it has no wiring going to it.

My question is does anyone have any experience with this vehicle / airbag, seat belt system which can enlighten me as how the system can tell the seat belt has been in an accident making it unservicable?

Thanks, Andy

 

[blaisa]

How do I delete? Posted In wrong place

 

[Dirt Squirt]

For your lifes sake do not delete. It does that for a very good reason. The accident/inertia tensioner is on the buckle side. They are not cheap to replace. There may be a diode or something that is replaceable. RonD can speak better to what is involved. My connection under the seat acts up now and then and sets same code. Try cleaning and reconnecting plug. Clear code, see if it comes back.

 

[blaisa]

I will try cleaning it. Most likely its dirty because the air bag didn't deploy. Thank you for the advice.

 

[DrWho42]

hi andy! welcome to the forums!

 

[gw33gp]

I had this problem a couple times. The first time it was under warranty. A year or so later after warranty had expired it came back. I took the connector apart to make sure all the connections were good and found a broken wire connection to one of the pins. I fixed that by soldering it and have not had a problem with is since then with 271K miles on it now.

 

[RangerXLT]

There is a TSB on the connectors, basically clean them with Deoxit and tape the connectors back to themselves to provide strain relief. After de-powering the system of course.

04-2-4