Alright, I have a 2004 XLT and have been working with this airbag light on the dash for several days now. I recently purchased the truck and it had the wonderful 5x5 beeping problem. The previous owner told me that a dealership had claimed that it was a problem with the PATS system and would cost $600 to fix.

I came on here and found out that the beeping can be caused by the airbag light being burned out. I go out to the truck, turn it to the 'on' position, and sure enough the light does not illuminate. I pulled apart the dash and pulled out the bulb from the cluster. I then went on a hunt to find a #37 bulb that would work. Today I finally found an Autozone who had a package of the bulbs, and I installed it.

Now, my left blinker light works again (I hadn't even realized that it wasn't working before this whole process started). The airbag light turned on two out of probably fifty times that I turned the truck to the 'on' position. However, it does not want to turn on anymore. I switched the light with the one that controls the highbeam indicator, and it still didn't turn on, but the left blinker continues to work. (Note: my #37 bulb also worked for the highbeam light, so it doesn't appear to have been a misfit).

Finally, this morning as I was driving around to go purchase the bulbs, I did not have the airbag lightbulb harness in the cluster and there was no 5x5 beeping. I had the truck on post-replacement of the bulbs, and again no beeping. Why does my indicator light not work?!?! Is the beeping going to be fixed? If it isn't fixed, will pulling the harness back out and sacrificing my left blinker stop it? AM I EVEN REPLACING THE CORRECT BULB?!?! OR IS IT JUST SUCH A FLUKE THAT THE LIGHT TURNED ON TWICE?!?!

Thanks everybody.

 

Its sounds like more of a wiring issue than anything. Maybe a bad connection, broken wire, or a broken solder. If it was me I would keep searching and bring along a multimeter to test as you go

 

I'm just shooting from the hip a bit here, but...

If it is a bad wiring problem, would the socket work at all? The bulb definitely works for the left blinker, so the problem would have to be between the bulb and the airbag light?

I could definitely believe there was a soldering issue after looking at the electrical board. There aren't any obvious issues, it just seems logical that it could be a culprit. I can look into that though.

Does anyone understand how the bulb is able to illuminate the blinker and not the air bag light, and vice versa on command? I mean, if the same bulb is responsible for both, what mechanism is in play that allows my blinker light to flash when I make a left-hand turn, but doesn't cause the air bag light to illuminate? This is part of the issue that has me a bit confused because I clearly do not understand exactly what is happening inside that cluster. Obviously, there are only circa 8 bulbs that illuminate circa 20 separate things. If someone could give an explanation of this, I would appreciate it.

In the meantime, I will see what I can find about the wiring and any solder points.

Thanks everybody

 

I think there was a recall related to the airbag light and the wiring in the steering wheel. may want to check that out.