Hello,

I got a used 2010 a few months ago, and shortly afterward, the SRS light came on.

I took it in to honda and they said it'd be $1k to fix, and gave me the diagnostic code. DTC 11-40.

However, the light never came on again... until now, two months later.

I am thinking they reset it, so I would like to do it again. However, the instructional videos I have seen seem to be only for years prior to 2010, in terms of the MES yellow plug.

How do I reset the SRS light on a 2010 model?

 

Odds are, if the light's coming on, that airbag won't work in the event of an accident. So if you're cool with your passenger smashing their head against the dash board, then reset it. Otherwise, troubleshoot that code and fix it right.

Has the car been in an accident before?

 

Christian,

If I was cool with it coming on, why would I be asking how to turn it off? Besides, it's not the passenger light, it's the main one, for the driver.

Telling me to troubleshoot the code and fix it after I posted a question, "how do I fix this?" is not helpful, sorry. The car had been in a wreck, which is probably what it is due to.

 

Please re-read your question.

Your question was not, "how do I fix this?"
It was, "How do I reset the SRS light?"

It's like patching a hole in your tire with duct tape, then wondering if there's a better solution to keep the duct tape from falling off. It's not the right way to fix it, but it'll work for a while - but do you really want to keep putting new duct tape on it forever? And would you be comfortable letting your mom/dad/wife/husband/friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/son/daughter/brother/sister/cat/dog drive it, knowing there was a potentially injurious outcome?

If it keeps coming on, there's a problem with one of the sensors, or the SRS controller itself. Even if you "reset" that light, you're not guaranteeing that it'll work when you need it to. The engineers at Honda didn't put that warning light in there as a suggestion, they did it to let you know something's wrong. Remember your TPMS light that you wanted to "reset"? Turned out to be a bad sensor. Same thing here.

You know it's been in an accident where the system seems to have been compromised. You have the diagnostic code, and know that it's for the driver's side, or, "Open or increased resistance in the left front air bag second inflator." They've even told you before that it was an airbag issue.

You have all the answers in front of you. So replace what's wrong. That's how you turn it off. If you don't know how to do it, and do it correctly, take it to someone who does. This is not something you want to hit a reset button on as a stopgap solution.

Or, if it's been fixed before (or "reset", as you presume), they didn't fix it right, and you can take it back to them to do so. If they're a half-assed mechanic that figured a way to "reset" it, then your estate can sue the crap out of them shortly after your death due to their mechanical negligence.

So don't give me a hard time because you don't like my answer. I'm merely trying to protect you or someone else who's an innocent bystander to your own potential easy-fix negligence. Yes, $1k is a ton of money to spend, but what's your life, and that of your mom/dad/wife/husband/friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/son/daughter/brother/sister/cat/dog, worth?

 

The question was how do I reset the SRS light. You didn't mention anything about how to do that, anywhere.

From reading other threads, the dealership always seems to want to tell people "just replace the whole airbag," but according to some of those threads, they were able to fix it by replacing something with the seatbelt:

Primary SRS light fix! - 8th Generation Honda Civic Forum

At this point, I'm just looking to, for now, reset it again. However, the tutorials I've seen for how to do that don't seem to be for the civic 2010. My configuration looks different.

 

The air bag module sends a small test current through the circuitry (including the air bag itself) to check if there is a break in the wiring. One rather breakable part of the wiring is the "clock spring" (aka "cable reel") that connects the driver's air bag on the moving part of the steering wheel to the stationary parts of the car. In a crash, the air bag module sends a heavy current through the clock spring to fire the air bag. The clock spring is supposed to be replaced along with the air bag should the car be restored to service after the air bag deploys, because the heavy current is likely to have damaged it. It's only designed to withstand that current surge once, for long enough for the air bag to work once.

In some designs the light will go out once the module detects that the circuit is again complete. In others it has to be reset. I don't know which one you have. I do know that if you just reset it without actually fixing anything, it's going to come on again later when the circuit opens again. And of course with unreliable circuitry you can't depend on the air bag to open in a crash.

If the car has crashed, it is also possible that the air bags have been replaced with inert dummy covers. The air bags and related equipment are expensive, leading to many crashed cars with relatively minor body damage being considered totaled. Unscrupulous dealers then buy those cars and patch them up with cheap improper repairs to sell at a profit. An inspection to see if you even have real air bags would be in order. Some states have a heavy penalty for dealers selling a car like that.

 

Thanks for the response. I've decided I'm going to get it fixed, I just am concerned about paying $1,000+ to replace the air bag if that's not even what the issue is. Should I bother mentioning to the dealership to check the clock spring instead? From another post of mine:

"
I have a honda civic 2010 LX. The light came on shortly after I bought it used, then I took it to dealership and they said it threw code DTC 11-40, and I had to pay $1,000 to fix it."

Code DTC-11 is driver airbag code. I'd rather them just have to fix the clock spring if that's what fixes it, or something more minor/cheaper, obviously. I am just concerned they are giving me the biggest thing to fix when it could be something smaller.

The car had been totaled and repaired. I guess it is possible that they gave a poor replacement airbag, if it even deployed(I have no idea if it deployed).

I did want to try resetting the SRS light via the way here:

http://www.civicforums.com/forums/19...bag-light.html

But the thing is, all the videos have a module that has like two plugs, and mine has 4(horizontally). I don't even know which ones to put the paper clip in.