Help Diagnose Possible Electrical Problem

[MacAttack7]

Today my air bag warning light was flickering on & off while I was driving. It wasn't a steady blink, but rather blink a few times, stop, blink once, stop, blink some more a few seconds later.

It only did it for about 5 minutes & it hasn't done it since, but it makes me concerned about an electrical gremlin.

Also, not sure if it's related, but my driver's side auto-down, auto-stop window feature, stopped working the other day for no reason. It would still go up & down, but you had to hold it just like you do for all the other windows. It started working again after I held it in the up position for a few seconds. (I was just guessing maybe that would work.). But I never did anything like that to make it stop working.

Anybody have any ideas?

I hate to take it to the dealer, because it's one of those things they probably won't be able to figure out since neither problem is occurring at the moment.

 

[MazdaTwo]

Today my air bag warning light was flickering on & off while I was driving. It wasn't a steady blink, but rather blink a few times, stop, blink once, stop, blink some more a few seconds later.

It only did it for about 5 minutes & it hasn't done it since, but it makes me concerned about an electrical gremlin.

Also, not sure if it's related, but my driver's side auto-down, auto-stop window feature, stopped working the other day for no reason. It would still go up & down, but you had to hold it just like you do for all the other windows. It started working again after I held it in the up position for a few seconds. (I was just guessing maybe that would work.). But I never did anything like that to make it stop working.

Anybody have any ideas?

I hate to take it to the dealer, because it's one of those things they probably won't be able to figure out since neither problem is occurring at the moment.

Unfortunately I don't have any advice on the SRS warning light. I will say this though, a lot of times a specific blink pattern means something. Maybe pay close attention if it happens again and watch for patterns. Just a thought.

As far as the window goes... this is a common problem. There have been one or two threads about it. You're right on with resetting it by holding it up for 3 seconds. I've noticed that mine has a hard time under a couple specific conditions: a) if it's going up automatically and I shut the car off too soon, when I re-start the car I have to re-calibrate the window. b) If I purposely leave the windows cracked in the summer to let some air circulate, I often have to re-calibrate when I get back to the car. You can argue that these are the same condition, but either way it's super annoying.

 

[PGTBrow]

Sometimes the airbag light will come on if the computer feels that the way you are positioned in the seat will harm you if the bags come out. So it turns them off. But if you are a little larger (not calling you fat lol) you could be on that border line where if you lean a little too much to one side it could momentarily shut off the bags.

 

[genericmoniker]

Or if you're small (especially like me, all torso) it could trigger as being "too close". I just turn the car off then back on.

 

[MacAttack7]

Thanks for the info.

Sounds like 2 separate issues (lock vs airbag), so that's good. I thought maybe I had an electrical problem affecting both.
The airbag light hasn't come back on, so I'll just hope it's ok & mention it when I get my next oil change.

I'm 6 ft, 190 lbs, pretty average, so I don't think my body had anything to do with it. Maybe I just ate too much that day.

 

[arcxer]

Just to make sure -- it's the driver's air bag light, not the passenger's?

(I can trigger the passenger light by simply putting my arm onto passenger seat).

 

[MacAttack7]

Just to make sure -- it's the driver's air bag light, not the passenger's?

(I can trigger the passenger light by simply putting my arm onto passenger seat).

Driver's I think. It's on the dash where all the warning lights temporarily activate when you start your car.
Has a picture of someone in a seat with a ball in front of the head of the person (guess the ball is the air bag).

 

[genericmoniker]

TBH, I've had it happen ONCE, and have yet to see it occur since. Which is why I'm not concerned about the airbag light at all.

 

[maxuz]

My wife's 2 has it happen sometimes. Apparently the sensor in the passenger seat can get uncalibrated, and when the car detects it it throws the warning. Last time it happened, I took it to the dealer and they just plugged it into the machine and reset the sensor and it was fine. That was last year, and it just happened to her again today, so it's apparently chronic but not frequent.

I've seen a few other people say they had similar problems on here; anyone have access to the TSBs to see if Mazda has mentioned this at all?

 

[fam]

Happened on our mazda5....turned out to be some seatbelt sensor relay causing it to sometimes trip.