What Does It Mean When My Silverado Lt Air Bag Service Light Comes On When I Start It Up

(Updated on March 21, 2022)

There are a diverseness of unlike warning lights on the dashboard of a vehicle. Almost people will only meet them illuminate when at that place is a particular problem with their vehicle that is indicated by that lite.

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Whether you know information technology or not, you have probably already seen the airbag light illuminate without even realizing it. For example, when you lot get into your vehicle and start upwards your engine, yous may come across a warning light that is reminding y'all to put your seat belt on.

In some model cars, the seat belt light is the same as the airbag lite. This means people are familiar with seeing this lite as a warning most their seat belt. They are not used to seeing information technology as a warning about airbags. As a issue, they may want to just ignore this light if it comes on without realizing that it is referring to a problem with the airbags and non the seat chugalug.

If you have your seat belt on and the airbag light is even so lit upwards, so yous shouldn't ignore this light because it likely means yous have at least one not-functional airbag in your vehicle.

It's disquisitional that you fix whatsoever problem there is with your airbag organisation because airbags are what may save your life if you go into a auto blow. You don't desire to discover out the hard fashion whether your airbags piece of work or not.

What Can Cause the Airbag Light to Come On?

Below are five common causes of an airbag calorie-free coming on:

1) Airbag Deactivated

The most common crusade for the airbag calorie-free coming on is that the airbag organisation is deactivated or turned off. There may be a few reasons for this which y'all had no control over.

At that place may be an issue with a crash sensor, SRS module, or other airbag component. Alternatively, the sensor in the rider seat that determines whether that airbag should exist active or not may be faulty.

two) Seat Belt Consequence

Similar previously mentioned, not putting on your seat belt could cause the airbag low-cal to come on. But in that location could exist other seat belt issues that may cause this lite to come on as well.

Maybe your seat belt does not snap deeply into the buckle and stay in place. Perchance at that place is a trouble with the sensors in the buckle and they don't accurately tell the computer that you accept fastened your seat belt.

Alternatively, there could be a problem with a seat belt pre-tensioner that may need to be repaired or replaced.

3) Small Accident

It is possible to become into a small car accident (aka fender bough) that doesn't deploy your airbags, but it withal causes the crash sensors to activate. This means your airbag lite volition stay on until you go to an auto repair store or airbag specialist and accept it repaired and necessary parts replaced.

A pocket-sized accident may be a situation where you lot hit something with the forepart of your vehicle while you're driving at under 8 mph. The crash sensors tend to exist sensitive to whatever type of blow no affair how big or small.

4) Water Damage

If the internal components of your vehicle have water damage for whatever reason, so corrosion may course on the crash sensors of your airbag organisation.

This corrosion volition distort their ability to function properly and it could upshot in the airbag light coming on.

5) Airbag System Not Reset

Once you're in an accident which causes the airbags to deploy, simply replacing the airbag is non enough. Crash sensors, clock spring, seat belt pretensioners, and other SRS components must besides exist replaced. In addition, the airbag monitoring unit (the brains of the airbag system) will demand to be reset or reprogrammed.

Y'all will need to have a qualified mechanic or dealership reset/reprogram the SRS module and then the airbag system tin be used once again. Alternatively, some companies permit you to transport them the airbag monitoring unit, they reset it for a fee, and then send it dorsum to y'all gear up to install.

Run across Also: Boilerplate Airbag Replacement Costs

Minimum Speed for Airbag Deployment

Airbags are designed for deployment when the front (or near forepart) of your vehicle collides with another vehicle or solid barrier. However, in order for the airbags to deploy, the minimum speed that yous need to be driving during your standoff is between eight mph and xiv mph.

Most people are driving mode above these speeds when they crash, usually between 35 mph and lx mph. The faster you're going during a collision, the more that you'll need an airbag to save your life.