Hit a tree at around 10 mi/hr Airbags didn't deploy but the light is on?

Question

1998 Chevy Cavalier Purchased used.

When I start up the car every thing works as usually but the airbag light stays on and wether I'm wearing my seatbelt or not the seatbelt light goes off. (though I don't move in a vehicle unless seatbelted)

I know that they shouldn't have deployed as I was going slow but the light is on and that worries me. The only damage is a quarter sized dent in the bumper that is about an 1" to 1.5" deep. Tulsa area drivers sure are in a hurry as once I hit the black ice and started losing control no one even cared and people kept passing by leaving me very little room to regain control and when I finally did regain any manner of control it was to follow a rut in the snow and ice that went around a corner although my vehicle (thanks to me in my stupidity trying to return to my origional heading instead of waiting until I had fully regained control) continued in a semi-straight path into a tree.

Answer 1

Air bags do not always deploy in an accident. There are discrimination sensors in the car that have to be damaged in an accident before the sir system will deploy the bags.your car has detected an accident because of a sudden drop in speed.take it to a dealer and they can tell you if there is an accident related problem with the diagnostic energy reseve module,or if a dtc can be cleared to turn the sir light out.

Answer 2

The reason the light is on is,it set a code in the SRS control module,take the car to a dealer or someone that has the very latest diagnostic tools,they can scan the system and clear the code

Answer 3

the air bag light being on means the there is a malfunction. there are more than one sensor that needs to be tripped to deploy the airbag. Sounds like you may have tripped only one. you may wanna take it and have the system scanned and the sensor replaced..

Answer 4

Go to the dealer and have them scan the system.. it may be a bad front impact sensor. You are correct that it should not have deployed the bags at that speed.