SRS airbag light on, communication issue?
 

2003 Boxster base.
All seems to be standard.
No SRS issues initially.

Took the car to be painted (no repairs - except small dents/rings, just pain job - nothing major body wise).
Picked the car up - airbag light on.

I thought airbag was disconnected with battery on. No biggie. Durametric will clear it.
It did not.

Took it to the dealer.
They say - communication problem. No VIN in SRS module.

They hassle with it, no resolution. I pay for time. $$$

A side story - I lost horn. Turns out the clock spring is damaged (it must have been wrongly assembled when I was replacing the turn signal stalk and cracked - it was bent in one place and over time it cracked). I replaced it with a working one. Horn is back. All seem to be fine.

So far - resolution is to order a new SRS module. Factory new. That is nearly 2 thousand dollars.


Anyone here could help?

Further questions.
If the module is faulty, can I get a used one (same part number)?
Is it true it must be VIN coded?
Can dealer, or someone else, code a used module?

Any other ideas?

Yes, the airbag module has to be coded to the car, which requires a PIWIS system. A used one MAY be able to be coded, but that is not a guarantee.

JFP... is that for specific years?

I swapped out my 4-spoke for a 3-spoke on my 98, having disconnected the battery beforehand. No lights, No hiccups.

Was I lucky? The reason I ask is because when I installed the 3-spoke... I did so a couple of splines off... rendering the steering wheel not perfectly straight when driving. If I remove and reinstall the steering wheel... should I be concerned about needing to have the SRS coded?

Thank you. :cheers:

Changing a air bag, or steering wheel, does not impact the air bag control module, but the control module itself MUST be coded to the car, which requires the PIWIS.

This doesn't make any sense to me. The SRS is a physical box hard mounted to the center tunnel under the center console.

First, unless the entire unit has gone bad (water exposure?), it wouldn't just lose it's coding. That's not how rom works.

Second, what does a paint job have anything to do with that system? Or is this just a coincidence?

It may help to find someone with a piwis and do the diagnostic yourself. I have no idea what the procedure is for programming the airbag system but clearing the light is quite easy.


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We have seen this a couple of times when the system has been messed with, for some reason the module loses its coding to the car. Exactly why is not known, but time in the body shops seems to be the common denominator, and as the body shop will nearly always claim innocence, we have not figured out what they did wrong.