Giving the dealer the benefit of the doubt, I would argue it is very
possible that the battery is weak enough to crank the engine and induce
a glitch into the computer. My 2001 Ford Expedition has a battery that
is about 6 1/2 years old. I live in Florida, it starts every day, but I
know it is bad. When I crank the engine the electronic instrument panel
goes through a prolonged reset. The voltage is sufficient to turn the
starter motor which is insensitive to voltage, but the electronics are
sensitive to voltage and need time to reset properly.

In fact a month ago the battery went dead because I left the interior
lights on for a few hours. I intend to get this fixed soon.

If the battery is over 3 years old, I would agree that replacement may
be in order. $132 is a little steep for a battery, however dealer
repairs and parts usually are much higher.

Go with the dealers recommendation and if the SRS light happens to come
back on again, in a short time, be sure and insist they apply a credit
for the battery replacement against the repair job.


David Farber wrote:

My son's car is an Acura 2000 3.2TL. Recently, the SRS light came on.
Searching the web I noticed this was a common problem. Acura extended the
warranty on some of the components in the SRS to take care of this problem.

Initially, the local Acura dealer said the component, an SPORD SRS Unit,
which costs about $300 then another $200 to install, needed replacing. Of
course, that was not one of the components covered by the extended warranty.
When my son asked the service department for the OBD scanner code to do his
own research, he was told it was 13-5. Further internet searching turned up
nothing on this code. The next day the dealer calls and says, never mind,
the battery is weak and that's why the light came on.

The service department then measured the cold cranking amps of the battery
and said it was 220 and that was too low. So my question is if the battery
has enough power to start the car, how can it be so weak as to enable a
fault condition in the SRS? How much power could the SRS need to operate? Of
course my son will get stuck with a $100 diagnostic fee if he declines the
repair. If he gets the battery replaced at the dealer the diagnostic fee
would be applied toward the battery replacement and the final cost would be
$132. I'm thinking that it was just a an onboard computer glitch that
triggered the light and this cold cranking amp measurement discussion is a
ruse to have him buy a battery because they really don't know what's going
on. Appeals to management have gone nowhere.

Thanks for your replies.




--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"©

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

"Follow The Money" ;-P