Airbag Light after Battery Disconnect for a Month

[mgfranz]

So here is my problem, when I know I am not going to be using my '01 986 for a month or two, I will just disconnect the battery since I know from previous experience that the battery will just drain to nothing. So I let my car sit for about 30 days with the battery disconnected as I have done in the past, I reconnected it and it started fine, except now I have the Airbag light on the dash. Nothing has been done to the car to possibly cause this. Although I did swap out the door latch about 6 months ago but after the swap everything was fine, so...

1) Is there anything I can do to clear the error code?
2) Other than pulling the door card and checking for a loose connector, what else can I look for?

Remember this only happened after the car had sat for a month with the battery disconnected.

And oh yeah, for the first time in over 7 years of ownership, I have to take her to a CA smog station to get checked, is the airbag light going to cause me to fail smog?

[Racer Boy]

Yo will need to have the airbag code reset. There are some OBD readers that can do this, the cheapest one I could find was the Autel MD802. It was $168 from Amazon.

In the future, I'd just get a battery maintainer and plug that in while the car sits, rather than disconnect the battery. I use a C-TEK 40-206 MXS maintainer/charger. I think it was about $70. You never know what the Boxster brain will do after being disconnected from the battery for so long.

I don't think that the airbag light will matter for a smog check, but you may have to drive the car for a while for the systems to show ready for the OBD. If it was disconnected from the battery, the timer on that may reset to zero. Another instance where the OBD scanner comes in handy, it will tell you if all systems are go.

In my opinion, owning an OBD scanner is part of the cost of owning a Boxster!

[mgfranz]

Took it to smog test yesterday, they could not "pass" my vehicle because the OBD reported "Not Ready" due to the airbag light. I'm going to let it sit overnight with the battery disconnected to see if that resets the ECU. If not, off to the indy.

[maytag]

Originally Posted by mgfranz

Took it to smog test yesterday, they could not "pass" my vehicle because the OBD reported "Not Ready" due to the airbag light. I'm going to let it sit overnight with the battery disconnected to see if that resets the ECU. If not, off to the indy.

I wouldn't bother with your indy, frankly. I.d follow racerboys suggestion. $168 for the reader he recommended puts you in charge of this, and many other issues which you will encounter.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[mgfranz]

This one? https://www.amazon.com/Autel-Diaglink-Version-Diagnostic-Transmission/dp/B01N0QQZY7

[mgfranz]

Picked up the Autel MD802 off Walmart.com for $89 + tax, received it today. After loading the free Porsche software, (super easy BTW), went out and ran diags, no errors reported, then went into the deeper modules. Found two errors on the airbags, a power fault, probably
due to the battery being disconnected for 2 months and a seat belt warning. Easily cleared these and all seems good.
Oh, and the OBDII is now reporting ready, so off to the smog station again. It passed all smog related issues fine, only the OBDII was reporting "Not Ready". Thanks for your help!

[traveno]

Originally Posted by mgfranz

Picked up the Autel MD802 off Walmart.com for $89 + tax, received it today. After loading the free Porsche software, (super easy BTW), went out and ran diags, no errors reported, then went into the deeper modules. Found two errors on the airbags, a power fault, probably
due to the battery being disconnected for 2 months and a seat belt warning. Easily cleared these and all seems good.
Oh, and the OBDII is now reporting ready, so off to the smog station again. It passed all smog related issues fine, only the OBDII was reporting "Not Ready". Thanks for your help!

Glad to hear you got it figured out!