[This followup was posted to sci.electronics.repair and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

In article ,
says...
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.

It is possible for a weak battery to cause transient trouble codes. The
Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique had a similar issue. If the battery got
too weak, it would fool the computer into thinking there was an airbag
failure.

Airbags need to build up a charge to fire the explosives used to fill
the bag. If the battery is too weak, it may not charge up properly and
trigger a code.

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