My airbag light is on almost all of the time. The dealer said that it is a Ford problem and that Ford is working on it and in the meantime there is nothing to be done. The fact that my airbags will not deploy while the light is on really stinks!! Has anybody a clue what is going on here? I am new to this forum. Sorry about the goofy user name, but everyone I tried when registering was coming up as already taken.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum

Your name is better than some of the ones we see here

Do you have another dealer you can try? For them to send you out with the airbags not working isn't very good.
Most of the Escape air bag problems I've seen were caused by bad connections under the seats. Usually just cleaning up the connections with some electrical contact cleaner helps.
When the air bag light is on there should be diagnostic trouble codes stored. Do you have any repair orders from your dealer that would have the code on them? If you can find out what code they retrieved we may be able to help more.

 

NO, don't accept that answer.
Airbags are a vital part of the vehicles safety system and you should NOT be forced to drive around without them.
I'm sure a good lawyer would have a field day with this one.

Try checking the connection under the passenger seat, seems some faulty connectors or splices have poped up from time to time on these vehicles.

 

Thank you for the welcome and the advice. I will check the paperwork I got from the dealer when I took my Escape in for the codes. I cannot believe that you guys have actually given me advice on a possible fix that I can try myself [ I don't think that it could be that hard to locate the connection :-) ] while the dealer "experts" just send me away! I will try this after work tomorrow while it is still light outside. Do I just look under the drivers seat and the connection should be pretty apparent?

 

Passenger seat.

 

There are connectors under both front seats. I believe the ones that usually give the trouble are the yellow ones near the front. Usually, removing and reseating the connectors will get rid of the problem for awhile. Ask your dealer to check for a TSB on replacing the pretensioner connectors. Some of them had bad wire crimps.

 

Howaboutthisone,

same problem I had. Under the passenger side seat you will see a connector (It's about 6 inchs from the front, about 3 inches from the left side). Mine was yellow. Actually, it's the only connector under the seat. Wiggle it around a little bit, putsome contact spray on it. Then, make sure you don't store anything under the seat (and make sure your passengers don't put the seat mat against it). I had trouble with a 24oz Pepsi bottle which got lodged under the seat. It triggered the cable.
Try the fix. Do this while your ignition is off. Then turn on the ignition.

Hope this helps

 

You guys are absolutely awesome!! I followed your advice and cleaned and reseated the connection. It worked perfectly!! I cannot believe that the dealer could not tell me that. I have been driving around unprotected by my airbags believing the dealer and thinking that I was stuck with this scarey situation. Before I go by the dealer and tell them that they are dummies, could you please arm me with a little knowledge? Does anyone know what the connector is called and what it does? Again....YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME :-)

 

Good to hear you got it fixed
The yellow connectors under the seats are for the seat belt pretensioners. The pretensioners tighten up the seat belt by a couple inches in the event of a crash.

 

It was only because of everyones help here. I am still amazed that the little red light is not a permanent fixture of my instrument panel anymore! Thanks for filling me in on what the connector is for. You guys are great!!

 

Is there a problem disconnecting and then reconnecting the connectors ? I know to do this with the engine off, but anything else need to be disconnected?

 

I can only tell you what I would do: Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery for at least 5 minutes to deactivate the restraint system and then unplug and replug the connectors before reconnecting the battery. Others have reported doing this without disconnecting the battery without any side effects. I'd rather err on the side of caution.

 

I did not do any of the above. However, these guys are great and I trust what they say. I diconnected the yellow connector under the front passenger seat, cleaned it with electrical connector cleaner, and reseated the connection. My airbag light has not come back on since. At all. Which to me is absolutely amazing, since it would never go off before. Even the dealer did not suggest this. They said that I was SOL:-)Now I make sure that nothing goes under the passenger seat. Good luck, I hope that this helps you :-)

 

My fiance took the truck into the dealership ( I was in Korea) and they did all of that, and yet the problem is still there off and on. Any ideas?

 

Are you making sure that absolutely nothing goes under the passenger seat? I know that also people on this site have mentioned something about replacing the seat belt mechanism. Something about the possibility of bad wires, I think. When the light comes back on, does disconnecting and reseating the connectors help?