info on SRS light

[vijays]

Hello people, what is an SRS light on a merc? What does this stand for and how do you reset it? My questions are very straightforward because i am sure that there is no problem with my vehicle at the moment. It went in for a routine check just last week and everything was thoroughly checked. Then again why would a light illuminate after this? I would like to mention here that i had a minor accident last month and everything was fixed after that ... no service/error codes came up and my vehicle was back to normal. Its been quite some time now so i was wondering why would i have an SRS light come up .. i didn't even know what this light was for until i picked up my brother today. Any help would be appreciated.

[jamal]

The SRS light is the Supplemental Restraint Systems light. You will be able to see it on the control panel of your vehicle. The light has problems to do with the safety unit of the car such as the airbags or seatbelt/seatbelt tensioners. This malfunction should come up in your OBD - on-board diagnostics where the malfunction is stored and can be noted. Normally the pros at the dealerships tell u what the problem is after they read the codes with their OBD scanner ... or something. Following me?

[vijays]

thats helpful. so with the light illuminated this means that the malfunction or problem lies with the safety unit? i hope it has nothing to do with the month old accident :s do you think it might be a glitch with the OBD system and there might not be any problem with the safety unit?

[bully]

Thats a possibility but a rare one, i dont know much about safety unit malfunctions so thats that. you might have to get it checked again ... since you know that the light has something to do with the airbags and seatbelts, you can have these things checked and scanned.

[alikhalil]

You cant reset it without having the problems checked, the light is just going to come on again. once they are fixed it can be reset with the help of the scanner Jamal is talking about. Everything for the guys at Gargash to take care of ...

[vijays]

oh i thought i could reset it ... thats what I found when i tried searching online but maybe i was mistaken because ali makes sense.

[saiff]

Well to be honest if you can use the OBD scanner tool and note down the codes, you can check your car's manual to know what kind of problem it might be. i have done that once since someone i know at a dealership looked up the codes for me for no charge at all. my problem wasnt the same as urs. Urs has something to do with the safety conditions of your car. show it to someone who can help.

[mercman]

Dear Vijay, I will try to explain what everyone is saying in systematic manner and what you are understanding alongside.

Any warning light in instrument cluster flashes the problem that is logged in car on board diagnostic system. This light coming explains some problem somewhere, where ??? can be only known by OBD II compliant scanner or general people call computer check for 150-200 dhs. Means get the car computer (OBD) checked for fault codes. Some OBD scanners can only read and dont write, and other do. The one's that can write, they are capable of clearing those lights. You can always clear the light and it will go off also for sometime until the next time same instance happen again that trigger this light again. Example: headlight bulb is fused and you clear the fuse bulb light from OBD and it will go away immediately, but it will appear back in as soon as you switch on the headlight when OBD detects some malfunctioning and report back the bulb failure in form of warning light. If you don't switch on headlight for month, it might not show you the warning light again (I will co-relate this bit with your case below).

There are two types of light, one in yellowish tint that is less serious and others are in red color that means very very serious and get those lights fix asap.

My assumption from what you explained is as follows. When you had an accident in that the SRS sensor wasn't replaced or not replaced properly and configured back to factory settings. If the repair is done with sub standard garage then they don't have tools to reset the SRS sensors to factory settings. And in your case after a month when first time you hit hard brake and system checked all safety components like airbag, sensor, seat belts etc. it reported this error. You send car to Gargash for service and there is no way they going to run scan on everything to check unless you should have mentioned this accident story and asked them to check and configure all SRS related issues. If your car was repaired at Gargash after the accident then its completely their negligence to not to reset the sensors on stock setting. I am not sure exactly what happen with you, but hope my explanation have given you enough ideas to doubt and get this problem fixed asap, this is serious issue so please dont ignore. Drive safe.