SRS Airbag code won't go out - VIDA won't clear it either
 

Hi all,

Been the owner of this car about 3-4 months.

The battery ran flat, and I had to jump start it. I tried to crank it while it was dead, so the battery effectively 'disconnected'.
Since then, I now have an airbag light, and the dashboard says SRS-AIRBAG Service Urgent.
Two seconds later that message is replaced by a Passenger Airbag failure message!
https://i.ibb.co/xsynDtt/Car-Scan.png
artist emoticons
As you can see from the scan, there is not a single fault to do with the SRS system. Sometimes VIDA comes up saying that the airbag light is on! So it know the light is on, but yet there are no codes for any airbag.

So, because the battery went low, these codes are new:
CEM-9C03 - indeed the bulb around the keyhole is dead
CEM-9C01 - yes the glovebox light is also dead.
CEM 1A59, ECM-18B0, TCM-0032, ECM06661,ECM6663 are all pre-existing, and the car drives fine with them by the way.

Have heard low battery can cause gremlins, what is the state of the battery now you've jump started it

Did it go flat because its old and near end of life.

Is there any option of swapping in a known good battery and seeing if that makes any difference

Can you try taking it out and properly charging it while leaving car without battery for a while. You might find on reconnecting it the faults go away

I messed around with mine one time and ended up with a Christmas tree dash, throttle errors, abs, srs, all sorts.. Disconnect 1hr, reconnect, back to normal

If nothing else it doesn't cost you anything to try it. Key in pos2 for reconnect to allegedly stop airbags blowing or causing other issues

AUM is audio module, if you've upgraded to a better head unit you'll probably have to just live with knowing that fault exists, me too

Also generally best to say what the car is, model, age, etc

Thanks for your time. Its a 2006 S60 SE in Auto.

Radio was on too long, battery went flat. Now the internal electrics still ran, but when I tried to crank it, the electrics died momentarily because of how flat it was.

Now the battery is old (2015!!) but after jumping it and driving home, it was fully charged. I even tried a battery charger and it said I was at 90% and so would only trickle charge to top it off. This happened last month and to this day the battery is still fine, fully charged.

I tried last night to disconnect the battery, hold the leads together for 30 sec to reset it on advice from some Volvo techs, but no dice. Tonight, I will try to leave it disconnected for 12/24 hours.

I did find on this forum that you can take out the airbag computer, send it to a company to clear the code, and then fit it again, so I might just do that, as apparently its now permanent and can't be cleared without taking it out and reading directly from the chip. Its roughly £60 and that's not too bad for the peace of mind knowing the airbags will work again :teeth_smile:

Very surprised to see how much is computerised on this car!

I know lol overkill would be an understatement

There are some handy features though like when I plug a cool box in the boot USB charger (v70, not sure if S's have that) it comes up on the dash, rear 12v in use. Saves any flat battery moments.. and it tells you when brake lights are out etc, though it would be nice if they took it one step further and told you which one.. but anyway yeah some clever stuff

It does mean of course if you want to replace bits they're like 500 quid for ridiculous stuff like door window buttons and even then you need them coded in (if they go wrong that is which to be fair I haven't seen threads about as yet)

Fortunately the usual basic maintenance parts are generally cheap especially if you buy bits on ebay

Might be worth getting it tested properly though because they can show up as charged but still be knackered

There are places that can plug it on a machine and do deeper battery cell tests

Personally I would (and did) just replace it anyway, rather 100 quid now than hours waiting for a tow truck at god knows what o clock

volvo can bus system is very problematic when battery levels fail also fitting aftermarket audio units can cause havoc with volvo electrics start with a known good battery and work from there.