airbag light comes on during cold temperatures

my airbag light comes on during temperatures below 60 degrees most of the time. It will disappear sometimes when i restart the car I searched the forums but to no avail any ideas???

urgent because i highway drive everyday and would like to have working airbags haha

previous owner said that it had happened before and it was nothing, but it didnt appear until about 4 months after owning the car but now its an everyday thing.

Originally Posted by surferdude1261

previous owner said that it had happened before and it was nothing, but it didnt appear until about 4 months after owning the car but now its an everyday thing.

I have exactly the same condition. Cold start up, the bag light comes on and stays on until warm restart. According to the computer, it's some sort of power supply interruption code... I haven't decided if I'm going to spend the money to investigate it any further. At this point, I simply drive it until it's warm, then hit a 7/11 for __________. Kinda kills two birds with one stone

try changing the batter. low voltage can trigger the airbag light also.

Originally Posted by first540i

try changing the batter. low voltage can trigger the airbag light also.

Ha ! Same thing here on the new-to-me 2000 528i, posted it on the "other" forum and got nothing...

First cold start of the day after a cold night <40F = light !
If I turn it off and on again, it never comes back. Warm days: no issues. Good thing I live in FL !

In fact, you don't even have to start the engine, if you turn the key almost all the way and wait, if the airbag light does come on and stays on, just turn the key off and on again all the way to start and you are good to go.

I replaced the battery, that wasn't it. The codes read as a non-clearable problem in the airbag brain. Right now I'm leaving it be and wearing my seatbelt anyway...

hmmm changing the airbag module?

Just started happening to me as well. Only on sub 30F days (23F today). Will come on after starting cold.... after a few minutes. Turn car off and back on ... is gone, though car is NOT fully warmed up. Will plug the car in to ediabas/INPA and see if any codes are there... though this software may not cover airbag codes.

Originally Posted by Deschodt

Ha ! Same thing here on the new-to-me 2000 528i, posted it on the "other" forum and got nothing...

First cold start of the day after a cold night <60F = light !
If I turn it off and on again, it never comes back. Warm days: no issues. Good thing I live in FL !

In fact, you don't even have to start the engine, if you turn the key almost all the way and wait, if the airbag light does come on and stays on, just turn the key off and on again all the way to start and you are good to go.

I replaced the battery, that wasn't it. The codes read as a non-clearable problem in the airbag brain. Right now I'm leaving it be and wearing my seatbelt anyway...

Ha, good to know... Certainly makes more sense than my "7/11 method"

Thank you all, its an eyesore but i feel reassured that its only electrical.

more money for mods now haha

Maybe loose connection to the pretensioner (the buckle part).

Just to confirm, mine is operating like a swiss clock...

Cold night around 40s, light ! 60Fs night, no light... The weather here has been alternating between freezing and 70s since december, and the car has been 100% predictable that way, it's 100% temps related. Makes no sense to me, but there you go ;-)

I have a 528 2000; Phoenix recently had freezing temperatures (very rare) and my airbag light is on, it never did this before. I am guessing it has to be the temperaure. When temp gets above 60 I am hoping it will turn off.

Same thing happens on 2000 540I. I just learned to live with it beside in another month the weather will heats up in CA.

Those of you with air bag light issues.

* will it extinguish after approx 2 minutes?


My E34 540i has a similar issue. SRS on for about 2 minutes then off. My research has me thinking it is the Passenger Occupancy Sensor. I'm not going to fix it cause it does extinguish.
From what I have read somewhere the P.O.S ( no not piece of sh!t ) remains "active" for about two minutes after a load is removed.

Originally Posted by air_cooled

Those of you with air bag light issues.

* will it extinguish after approx 2 minutes?


My E34 540i has a similar issue. SRS on for about 2 minutes then off. My research has me thinking it is the Passenger Occupancy Sensor. I'm not going to fix it cause it does extinguish.
From what I have read somewhere the P.O.S ( no not piece of sh!t ) remains "active" for about two minutes after a load is removed.

Nope. I have to turn the key off then on and it'll go away.

Just for documenting this further, my car has kept on doing this *religiously* for the past 2 months. Not a single variation from the pattern:

- Sub 60F night (don't quote me on the exact temperature, I sleep at night, call it cold): Airbag light until the car is warmed up, then it will go off if I turn the engine off and restart it. Won't go away by itself, at least I have not had the patience to try....

- very close to 60 and below: same as above but sometimes I can get by with just turning the key off and on again without even starting the engine.

- >60F: never ever a light

I mean, you could drive a beautiful correlation line through the data points if you were a stats nerd... it's dead reliable to behave like that ;-) I ain't fixing this for the 30 nights per year below 60F (non contiguous) that I have to endure in FL...

I have the same issue on my 2000 540i. I could not figure it out and I have more pressing repairs to do, so i just put it off. Not so worried any more.

My 2002 530i illuminated the airbag light one cold morning in December, and a few days after re-setting it, the light would come on again during a cold morning drive to work. The code on mine indicated that there was a fault with the drivers side firing circuit.

After thinking about this code for a few days, I decided to pull the steering wheel airbag. I found that the plastic connector for the airbag was not inserted into the clockspring receptacle enough to "snap" into place. After removing the four screws that retained the airbag, I gently pulled the airbag towards me, and the airbag connector just slipped out of the clockspring receptacle. I plugged it back in, and it made a resounding "click" when it was fully seated. I reinstalled the airbag, then reset the light, and it has not illuminated again.

thanks ill look into it.

Old thread bump alert.

I too have a 2000 540i and have the exact symptoms everyone else reported.

Just curious if anyone got anywhere with this.