98 4x4 questions, air bag and electrical
 

Hello, I just bought a 98 Explorer 4LLimited, and I havea couplequestions:

The air bag light has been blinking 4/4 for a couple days. I found on an f-150 site that the 4/4 flash is "RH Front air bag sensor and bracket not mounted to vehicle properly." Is this true for explorers? I figured I would take a look under the front of the explorer for the sensors and clean the connections with some spray. After disconnecting the battery if found 2 small black boxes behind the front bumper with 3 wire connections, are these the sensors? I gave them both a clean but the light still flashes 4/4. (btw, which side is Right Hand, driver or passenger?) How can I get this light to stop flashing? It won't pass a safety with the light blinking. I realize that it might be the sensor itself, butI don't want to take it into ford unless I have exhausted every other possiblity first.

In front of the driver's side tire, close to the black box that I believe to be a "front air bag sensor", there is another modulewith an oval 7 wire connector. This was unplugged! The wire connector end was so corroded it was beyond cleaning. I cut the wires and crimped on individual connectors and heat-shrinked them to insulate against the other pins. Using the old plug as a guide, I put the wires back in their correct layout, and reconnected the battery. Right away the headlights came on, as well as aheadlight indicator light on the dash, below the ABS light and to the right of the fuel gauge. When I tried to turn on the high-beams, the orange lights came on instead. Autolight option was off, as was the light switch.

When I unplugged the 7 pin box, the lights went off and everything worked as it should.

What is going on? What is that module for, and how is my vehicle running without it?

If anybody can help me with any of this that would be great.
Thanks

RE: 98 4x4 questions, air bag and electrical
 

Okay well just to let anybody else know, that 8 pin module with 7 wires in front of the driver's side tire is the daytime running light control. I guess it shorted out and a quick fix is to just unplug it, everything works fine except the daytime running lights. Which I'm pretty sure are law in Canada, but maybe not in the US?

As for the airbag light, I ended up paying for a diagnosis of the system, and guess what? RH Front air bag sensor and bracket not mounted to vehicle properly. Well worth paying for the diagnosis. *groan* So a new right hand sensor from ford is $150 and will be here tomorrow. I would have liked to pull off the bumper and check the ground connectionfirst, but Ineed to get the light off, and thevehicle safetiedbefore my temporary licence plate expires. I will report back once I get the sensor swapped out, but for future, does anybody have a list of the airbag codes?Hopefully I won't need them again, but it would be nice to haveacompletecode list.

Thanks

RE: 98 4x4 questions, air bag and electrical
 

Thanks for the update..

Sent you a PM..

RE: 98 4x4 questions, air bag and electrical
 

Sure enough it was a faulty sensor, and Iwas happy to find I could change it without to much trouble by removing the plastic cover above the grill/headlights, and not taking off the bumper. only took about 1/2 hour, I was expecting much worse.