I disconnected the passenger side airbag to get at the heater and when I hooked it back up I have an SRS light on the dash. I looked at it with an OBDII reader but there is no code for it. I disconnected he battery before disconnect and reconnected before I hooked up the battery. Anyone have a theory as to what I may have done wrong or how I can get rid of the light.

Dear RWD forever,

May this find You well. The sensors are sensitive (pun intended): a small power surge when you re-connected may have triggered a fault condition.

To try to reset the system, again disconnect the negative battery cable clamp from the negative battery terminal. Wait 30 minutes. Re-connect and see if the SRS light stays out. If so, fine.

If not, do this two more times. If the SRS light stays on, you may need to take it to a dealer. They may be able to re-set the system. Worst case: a new collision sensor is about $600 (Part #9459190).

Please post back with your findings.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Well I tried to disconect and reconnect and no go. I can't see how I could have surged the power as I removed the fuse and disconnected the battery before I unplugged the airbag. I think this will be my last Volvo, doesn't seemto matter what I fix on this thing there is always a new problem cropping up. Makes you wonder what they will be like when they start making them in China don't it?

Dear RWDforever,

May this find You well. The power surge, if any, occurred on re-connection, not disconnection. Your disconnect process was perfect. The collision sensors are sensitive. As David Hunter suggested, try to read the codes. Please report your findings. I have a Volvo reference book, that has most - if not all - of the codes.

Heads on 940 and 960 series cars are, with perhaps the inevitable Volvo exception, made of aluminum. I'd not use an impact tool, for fear of stripping-out threads and/or snapping fasteners.

China has plenty of smart engineers (these are the folks, who built the Great Wall). The real question is whether the Management want to restore Volvo to world-class status. If they do, they'll succeed.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Hi, thanks for your reply, I haven't had a chance to find a code reader that will do the SRS codes but I did try the battery disconnect route about 4 times with no luck. I do know all about the 960 heads, believe me, the last one I had was rebuilt by a "professional mechanic" who obviously didn't own a torgue wrench and almost every bolt on the top half of the head was stripped. It bled copious amounts of oil so I took it all apart, drilled and retapped every hole to a larger size bolt and it fixed up real nice. The part that I broke was the aluminum extension housing that holds the thermostat. I had no idea that the aluminum would be so thin as Volvo normally overbuilds by at least 50 percent. I won't try that again!

Thanks for the input, I did have the battery out for about five days (to replace the thermostat housing I cracked trying to change the thermostat) after I plugged the air bag back in and the light came right back. By the way never ever try to use an impact driver on the thermostat housing! That turned into one of the worst jobs I have ever had to do on a 960. I ended up removing about twenty items off the left side of the engine to get at one lousy bolt on the housing that bolts to the head. I wil try to disconnect the battery again and see what happens, Thanks.

On your 97 the OBD2 port is capable of codes from other devices such ABS, ECC, and yes even the SRS system. A small generic code reader will not do it. There are readers that will read the proprietry codes, not sure which ones though. I don't think you have to go to a dealer. They will charge an unreasonable price just to read it, takes about 30 seconds. Have you tried the free code read at Advance Auto and the other parts places.
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David Hunter

I finally found a shop with a proper OBDII adapter and they were able to shut off the code. Of course the next day the check engine light came on again! This car just ain't happy unless there is a trouble light on on the dash. I had a catalytic code sinceI bought the car so I changed the rear O2 sensor which, I thought, had fixed the problem.

I am curious where you were able to get the SRS code read and erased.
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David Hunter