Flashing Airbag Light

Hi Guys,

As you may have seen in another recent post, I am looking at changing some or all of the exhaust system out on my 1990 GT Cobra, but during the search for parts and combining that with some research I did into an issue from late last season I have come up with a new question:

It sounds like what causes the flashing air bag light could be the smog system (thermactor parts TAB/TAD) as well as ignition module and/or ignition coil. I am going to change the ignition parts because they likely need it anyway, but if the thermactor parts and smog system is causing problems which sounds like a hard problem to chase, would it be best to go with the non-catted H pipe, get a shorter belt to bypass the smog pump and cap/tuck away all the smog related piping to the heads and cats?

I like the idea of simplifying the system and doing the above, but will this cause any engine lights or any other flashing trouble lights on the dash? If anyone has experience in doing this please let me know your thoughts. Where I live we have no emissions tests or anything like that so that is no concern. Getting pulled over and having a roadside inspection done might not go well, but I will look into whether or not that will be an issue.

As always, thank you for the help!

That would be a huge relief if that is the case, and it makes sense too. I just did a quick search trying to find the back and forth between people that had the same issue but couldn't find it. I did instead find something where they are saying that there is some sort of back up battery behind one of the headlights for the air bag that could be causing this. I am going to look further into this. The original stuff I found they went into great deal about the air bag light flashing a trouble code and it meaning that the smog system or in one persons case the ignition module being the culprit. It always seemed strange to me that this could be the issue but it was all I had to go on at the time.

I again hope that it is something to do with the air bag and nothing else. That should be a much easier problem to find and is much less worrisome than trying to chase a problem that is effecting the way the car runs. I guess the question still stands about if disabling the smog system and going with a non-catted H pipe will trigger any dash lights or negatively effect the way the car runs, but I'm sure this is a very routine thing to do and there is likely a lot of information available online.

Once again, thank you for your help, it is appreciated.

Yeah, I agree with that. I really had no intention of disabling or removing any of it but once it was in my head that the system might be causing issues and since I am doing exhaust work to some extent I thought I could maybe kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Even though we don't have emission tests here, the cats are still required for a safety inspection so if I ever ended up in one of those rare road side surprise inspections I would be in trouble.

On that note, I have seen that there are after market "catted" H pipes. Is there any advantage to these over the stock setup? If not then maybe like you suggested just changing the headers and doing the cat back system would be my best and cheapest (not to mention legal) bet. I will be getting the car out of the garage soon and dig a little deeper into this air bag light situation. If I can get it fixed I will for sure leave the smog system alone. Hows the saying go - if it ain't broke don't fix it right, lol. It would be a different story if the car was just a Sunday cruiser or something like that but I will be using this daily for the summer.