On one of my cars, the "airbag" warning light will not illuminate. The car has never been crashed at all. Owners manual states it could be a bad bulb. Since the light is stated to only be on for 6 seconds after ignition is turned on, I do not think it is the bulb. If the fuse had blown, could this cause the light itself to not illuminate? Does anyone have a airbag equipped Mercedes, that the "airbag" or "SRS" light does not illuminate on? Thanks.

I don't understand your logic behind the statement: "Since the light is stated to only be on for 6 seconds after ignition is turned on, I do not think it is the bulb"

What does when it comes on have to do with whether it is the reason it doesn't. The main reason all the lights come on in the key on engine off senario is to do a bulb and systems check. By putting the car KOEO (key on eng off) one can view the systems with warnings and determine if the warning bulb is OK on systems known to exist.

The other day we worked on a ABS problem, untill we noticed that every time the control unit was removed the windshield washer fluid light came on. Someone had reversed the bulbs in their slots and the real problem was the washer was out of fluid.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

I guess I could have worded it different.

What I meant was since the light is only supposed to stay on 6 seconds each time the ignition is turned on, that the light is normally rarely illuminated. It is not a light that is always on, so I am assuming it (the bulb) has a longer life than that- unless it was defective to start with. I am going to check the fuse when/if it stops raining. That may be the problem.

Keeep things simple, check the bulb. I doubt it's a fuse since fuses run several differnet things, not just one particular light. All your dash warning lights are only on for a few seconds as well. Except maybe the parking brake light.

__________________
1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member

But doesn't the airbag fuse on most cars only control the airbag(s)? I will need to check the owners manual I guess. Thanks.

Update- I took the car to the dealer today and it turned out that the previous owner did not want a airbag working. Perhaps a short driver? Tech found out that the airbag had been disconnected and the bulb was removed. Reconnected and installed new bulb and all is well. Charged $34.50 part and labor. Very fair price I think.


Thanks again for all of the replies.