levijean

Will disconnecting the battery reset my airbag light?

Will i need a radio code when I reconnect?

Its a 2003 with Bose & CD changer.

ElTorrente

No, it won't reset. It will come right back on. You can clear it with durametric, though.

Also, you'll need to enter the radio code.

Ahsai

It's correct the airbag light won't reset. 2003 models use MOST bus so no radio codes are required.

Arne Klinge

If you have an error code above 100 for the airbag, you will need a new airbag control unit. I did this, very easy job, you can get them used on ebay, cheap also. New, very very expensive.

DIY on airbag control unit

Macster

Let us hope he can clear the LED.

The airbag warning LED in my Boxster came on. Tech found no error codes. A call to the factory for advice on what do was returned and the advice from the factory was to replace the airbag controller. A new one was installed but the LED remained on. The tech removed the new unit and the factory accepted it back at no charge to me. The old unit was reinstalled.

The instrument cluster was sent out to have this repaired. At the cluster repair shop -- located in AZ -- the tech there told me he replaced several "chips" but had no way of testing the unit. The unit was returned and after installing it back in the car the airbag LED remained on.

Oh, before the above the tech managed to use another instrument cluster in my car -- with permission of the person who owned the Boxster out of which this the cluster came from -- to confirm its airbag LED was not on when installed in my car. This confirmed the problem was in my car's instrument cluster.

The instrument cluster repair tech said if I want I can send the unit down again and he can replace the circuit board with a "new" one then restore the saved contents from the old chips from my cluster's original circuit board to the chips on the "new" circuit board so the instrument cluster odometer and other unique data to my car remains intact. (IIRC the cost of this is around $150 not including shipping.)

I plan on doing this as soon as I get some instruction from a tech on how to remove the instrument cluster.

Oh, what I learned: All the LEDs are fed power through a common power line. To turn on an LED a ground connection must be made. To turn off an LED a ground connection must be broken. The problem is the control of the pin that makes or breaks the ground to this specific LED has been lost. This can be a broken trace on the circuit board or a bad output pin circuit in the instrument cluster controller chip. It might also just be a bad LED.

In the meantime the airbag warning LED remains on. After a while this began to bother me so I taped over the light.

The tape job is so good -- by luck but I did try to make it nice looking -- that the day after taping this LED over I got into the car and after starting the engine spotted the dash dark. No warning LEDs on. Thinking the problem had cured itself I was momentarily nearly overcome with joy until I remembered I had taped over the thing. It took some effort to see the tape I had applied the night before.

levijean

Durametric cleared the code - passenger buckle fault. I didnt attempt to repair anything and the fault has stayed clear so far. I guess I'll grab a can of electrical contact cleaner and cross that bridge when I come to it.

Pautab1

Wanted to revive this thread in 2021 - I was swapping out the seats in my 2003 996.2 and accidentally reinstalled the harness wrong and it triggered the air bag light. My local independent porsche mechanic wanted $160 to reset the light so I tried alternatives. I read off of other forums that the Autel Autolink AL619 OBD2 scanner clears the airbag and it worked like a charm. Best $99 you can spend.