My air bag light keeps flickering on, sometimes it will stay on for 2 minutes, then it will disappear for maybe 15 minutes... but then it would start flickering on and off every 10 seconds (approx. happened for maybe 1 minute). is there a reason for this?

 

Ross

The light will come on if a system malfunction has been detected and system will be disabled as long as the light is on. Does not sound from your description that there is any pattern to the flashes. If there is a hard fault such as a disconnected air bag it should flash a 2 digit pattern 5 times and then turn light on solid until key is cycled off. (example of flash code 13 would be 1 flash, pause, 3 flashes, pause, 1 flash, pause, 3 flashes, etc.) If the light is just flickering on, get it into the dealer and see if a past fault code has been stored.
Have not had any air bag problems with the 6 yet so nothing common to look for.

 

Haha, I swear, you have more problems with your car than anyone else in the Mazda6 section! Hope you didn't get a lemon!

 

Which airbag light? There is one that is in the main instrument cluster (to detect faults), there is another (I believe in the centerstack/audio area) that let's you know if the Passenger airbag is disabled or not (due to the seat weight sensing system.) If you have a briefcase or something else riding in the passenger seat, it is possible to be on the threshold of on/off for the Pass airbag. (My Mazda3 does this all the time.)

 

i think you might be right about the passenger seat. I had my school books laying on the seat. Maybe that was enough to trigger the seat belt light that was on the center audio console at the bottom. I never thought of that.

 

I think that's what is happening. The light on the centerstack tells you whether or not the Pass airbag is activated or not. It will light up if the airbag is deactivated. (If the passenger seat thinks that a small occupant, I believe <90 lbs, is in the seat, then the pass airbag is deactivated.)

The actual warning indicator for the airbag system is a small idiot light that simply says "airbag", it's located in the instrument cluster.

Hope that's what you are seeing.

 

Am sure you are right too. I thought gray 6 was talking about the one in the instrument cluster. I always think of the one in the console as the deactivation light and not air bag light. It does turn on with just a small amount (1 to 2 lbs ) of pressure and will shut back off with less so a few books would probably do it.

 

There is a guy on another Mazda3 site that had the same issue. He slid his car into a curb, then parked it to go take finals. When he returned and was driving away, he noticed that same light on and he thought he had tripped a sensor.

I told him to take his school bag off of the pass seat. He said that was it.....I love easy fixes.

 

I am sure glad you guys were able to figure that out for me, with all of this new technology coming out with airbag alerts and stuff, I dont even know what is going on. My 1991 toyota 4runner didnt have any of these things, so anything that happens to this car, i start to wonder if that is how it is supposed to function or not.