My airbag light faintly / dimly stays on when I open the door (no key in ignition), stays dim while driving (after lighting up brightly from start up - then goes dim), and stays dim for about 2 minutes after i shut down the truck and/or close the door with key removed from ignition (stays on for about a minute after the dome light shuts off). the airbag light is very dim compared to when it lights up during start up / test. I did try disconnecting the battery for ~30 minutes, no avail. i also tried disconnecting the ACM (disconnected battery first) and the dim light still came on (with no key in ignition but door open and ACM disconnected).

Right before the air bag light came on dimly, i removed the factory radio as it was pulling a parasitic current when vehicle is ignition off (0.5A) and draining the battery. there is negligible current draw now, but i wonder if this is related.

it almost seems as if the faint airbag light is tied to some timer (seat belt?) b/c of how the light stays on after shutdown and closing up the vehicle.

any suggestions or help is appreciated.

thanks
josh

2003 Ram 2500 4x4 ST 5.7L

 

You have a wire or multiple wires that are suppose to see 12+ Volts when the ignition is on, that are seeing Constant 12+ Volts.

Start Troubleshooting...

 

don't think they are constantly on, as after the truck is shut down and/or door closed the light goes off (after about 2 minutes of being off and having door closed)

 

Then you have a short somewhere... you're going to have to check voltage on each circuit you see that gets energized when you open/close the door... Something is seeing voltage when it isn't suppose to.

 

Yeah sounds like a short to me. Go back to radio area where it originally started and check there. Plug radio back in see what it does, etc. gonna have to trace this out.

 

tried plugging radio back in, no avail.

could this be part of the seat belt system? as when i open the door after the vehicle has been off, the airbag light goes dimly on and i believe that the seat belt "power up" when the door is opened, as they are when the vehicle runs.

 

go buy a multimeter and start checking... speculation will only get you so far...

 

got a multimeter (diagnosed the parasitic draw from the radio with it). just trying to get input as to where to start first. recap:

1. airbag light goes on VERY DIM when either door is opened (no key in ignition) AND when the vehicle runs (key in ignition On)
2. Dim air bag light shuts off when vehicle is shut down and doors closed (2 min later)
3. Dim air bag light goes to full brightness during startup/test and then returns to dimly lit
4. tried resetting computer (disconnected battery for 40min)
5. recently found radio was pulling .5A when off and disconnected from harness. tried plugging radio back in with no luck. dim light came on after radio was disconnected the first time.
6. disconnected ACM but air bag light still dimly lit with no key in ignition and door open

if anyone has an idea where to start testing or ideas, it will be greatly appreciated

 

Very strange. Seems like something is holding a residual low level charge like a capacitor, then slowly bleeding off through the lamp when turned off. All I can say is to get schematics of that circuit like starting with the cluster and airbag light, and work your way back trying to find where the power is coming from with ignition off. Could be an open ground path or something not allowing it to discharge properly or a blown resistor in the circuit.

 

I think it is one of three things....

1) Open Ground path

2) Damaged Wires making contact

3) Improperly installed relay that is suppose to be normally open or is being energized by #1 or #2.