Caution - this is kind of long. First, allow me to introduce myself as a new member of this board. I currently own a '95 850 wagon and have also had recent problems with the SRS system which I have not yet even begun to resolve. While there are a few years between your car and mine, I suspect that there aren't huge differences in the basic function of the SRS system. To put it mildly, get ready for a BIG shock when you get THIS system diagnosed. Like you, I noticed the SRS warning light go on about a month ago for no apparent reason. I called my local dealer who advised me to come on down right away, because he thought that the light meant that an airbag might go off at any time. Silly me - I took his word for it and brought the car in. The fact is, when your SRS light goes on, the entire system has already been shut-down by the control module, so the chances of any air bag going off is virtually nil, with or without a crash. So the technician ran his code checks (DTC 2-2-2) which indicated a fault in the passenger module (low resistance, or an open circuit). Now, this gets a bit complicated, because the technician can't DIRECTLY measure the suspect module with a VOM or anything for fear of setting it off. They can only place a "dummy" resistance load on the wiring harness and see what happens when they reset the system and run their checks again. My system checked out OK when they did this (DTC 1-1-1), so their logic is that my passenger module is defective. Problem is, when I drove away, the SRS warning light didn't come back on. It still didn't come back on until about 2 weeks later, again for no apparent reason. I took the car to a different dealer who performed the same check with the same conclusion. And what do you know - I've been driving for the last three weeks now without the light going back on.

Now here's the kicker: these guys are telling me that I need to replace the passenger module to "fix" this problem, or my car won't be able to pass a safety check before I sell it (which I am now seriously considering, for a variety of reasons). Howz about $1400 for the module and $120 labour(Canadian) for something that's just sat there in the dash doing absolutely nothing and which appears, at the moment, to be FUNCTIONING PERFECTLY?! Can anybody tell ME what this all means? Surely there must be a better way of troubleshooting these SRS systems than this? Personally, I sense a mighty storm brewing, as these systems pass their expiry dates (which, technically, mine hasn't) and people are given the handy zero option of replacing ALL of their air bag modules, deployed or not, to pass a safety check. Hell, you might as well give the car away at that point because no one in their right mind would spend that kind of money.

Anyway, I've hopefully raised a few more questions than answered any. I do intend to pursue this with Volvo and with the Ontario Ministry of Transport (if their staff ever goes back to work - the whole damn government's on strike!) and I'll keep you all posted. In the meantime, I too would like to know about anyone else's experience with what I think I'll start calling the Seriously Ridiculous Shakedown system. And don't get me wrong - I bought my Volvo for that extra sense of safety as well, and I don't take lightly the idea of my airbags not working. However, I also don't think I should get hosed for what may be another case of bad engineering supported by bad legislation. For example, why the hell isn't the control module designed with fault-tolerant sub-systems so that one (potentially) defective module doesn't result in the whole thing going down? What kind of safety engineering is that? It would be like the entire braking system shutting down because of a problem in one of the four wheels. Any engineering types with an answer that makes sense?

Thanks for indulging this much-needed rant.

David