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Airbag Light

I

i973eat1

NAXJA Forum User
Location
STL
OK, I have a 1999 XJ, 4.0 2door
Sometimes the airbag light will come on, and when it does my tach and speedo will drop to 0. Other times the airbag light will come on with a CEL, and the digital readout for the mileage will say "no bus"...

Has anyone had these problems, and what was/ is causing it?
Not enough power in the battery?
Bad ground somewhere?
Thanks yall!
 
It usually means there is a bad connection with the back of the gauge cluster. Remove the cluster, clean up the contacts, and put it back in making sure to help push the connectors in with a hand on the back of them.

If it continues then that means there could be an issue with the CCD bus wires.
 
usually when I see airbag issues (airbag trouble light) it's an issue with the clock spring, which is a part in the steering column that allows all the parts of the wheel to stay connected to the rest of the car and still turn. However I think Alexia may be onto something and is worth checking out first as a new clock spring is near $100, and a solid day of tearing your column apart to get at.
 
With the Airbag light on and a NO BUS readout I would suspect that the Airbag Control Module is causing a problem on the CCD Data Bus. Disconnect battery ground cable then try disconnecting the ACM and see if the NO BUS goes away. If so I would think the ACM is defective.
 
On one of mine, it does the same thing, air bag light on and no speedo. I bang the instrument panel and it goes off and the speedo returns. Will fix when change out to a gauge panel instead of the idiot light panel in there now. Will clean and dielectric the plugs/connector on the back. good luck.
 
This is a known common issue and as Alexia said, is a contact problem at the connectors for the instrument cluster..

The contacts have dissimilar metal corrosion buildup occur that appears as a gray coating. scrape it off with a small flat blade screwdriver and use a small amount of contact grease to coat them and put it back together.

There was a TSB and a fix kit issued for wranglers, but never made it that far for the cherokee's. It only advanced to a STAR case at best. You can get the kit for a wrangler and install it but it means cutting and splicing in a new connector.
 
Last edited:
Digger87xj said:
There was a TSB and a fix kit issued for wranglers, but never made it that far for the cherokee's. It only advanced to a STAR case at best. You can get the kit for a wrangler and install it but it means cutting and splicing in a new connector.
Click to expand...

Does that TSB kit cover the old style connector that is shared with the XJ or does it cover the new style TJ connector?
 
99+ IIRC, is the same connector as the TJ. wire colors were off though, so installing it was a challenge keeping the circuits correct and not much room to work, soldering and heat shrinking.

The connectors come as a pigtail unit, with terminals installed with 6" of wire to splice in.

a writeup here
http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/fixing-no-bus-message-gauge-cluster-88247/
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the suggestions, I guess that I will have to take the speedo out and clean the plugs up soon.

Side note, if I push on the trip/reset button the gauges will come back to life, and the airbag light remains on for a few seconds then goes away also....
 
i973eat1 said:
Thanks for the suggestions, I guess that I will have to take the speedo out and clean the plugs up soon.

Side note, if I push on the trip/reset button the gauges will come back to life, and the airbag light remains on for a few seconds then goes away also....
Click to expand...

That is a classic sign of the connector issue.
 
Alright, I guess that I have to figure out how to tear my dash apart soon... add that to the list of things I have to do. lol
 
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