How do you reset the air bag light on a 1995 Mercury Villager?

Answer 1

You take the car to your Ford dealer, this is the only way to reset the air bag light

I found a more complete answer on another page.

You would think that fixing air bag problems was some sort of trade secret...VERY FEW people will give you information on them. I checked my local parts stores for advice (NAPA, AutoZone, Advance, O'Rielly) The common answer is "take it to a dealer" because people are afraid of setting off the airbag. Unless you short the system out just right, or hit a sensor hard. You should be safe. Just take the common precautions of disconnecting the battery...which can lead to a code 52!

If you have ever ran your trucks battery down, or unhooked the battery to work on something, you might have gotten a code 52 on your airbag light. I couldn't tell you what years this works for, but I know it worked great for my 95 Ranger XLT 4x4 4.0L with Auto trans. I couldn't find this info anywhere! So now I am sharing it with you! By the way...OBDII scanners cannot clear ABS or Air Bag issues. Totally separate systems!

I started with a code 12 (loss of power to the air bag system) which turned out to be a blown 10amp fuse in the fuse box under the hood. After replacing the fuse, I had worked on several other things inside with the doors open for hours and ran the battery down with the dome lamp. I then got a code 52 (loss of power to the secondary power source for the airbag which is a capacitor) I have read in several places that this is a very common problem with Ford after a loss of battery power. The solution was to "go to the dealer to have them reset it" Who wants to pay for an expensive dealer fix when you can do it yourself easily.

HERE IS HOW YOU DO IT:

Quoted from Mitchell (my observations after each step)

CLEARING CODES1. Only intermittent codes and codes that diagnostic monitor recognizes as being repaired may be cleared from memory. To clear codes, cycle ignition OFF to ON. Observe AIR BAG warning light. AIR BAG warning light will illuminate for 4-8 seconds, and flash fault code.

(Comment) Loosely translated - If you don't have the problem fixed, this wont work. Code 52 should clear with this!

2. Locate air bag diagnostic 2-pin connector.

(Comment) This was a fun one. According to the air bag wiring diagram that I also got from Mitchell, the Airbag Diagnostic Connector is located "Right side of Instrument Panel". The only thing I found immediately to the right of the I/P (between the stereo and Instrument panel) was a black computer with 4 connectors which is NOT what I was looking for. I finally found a blog that mentioned the computer for the air bag computer was behind the right side kick panel. Sure enough....there it was. Attached to the side of the diagnostic computer was a two prong diagnostic connector.

3. Connect a jumper wire between diagnostic connector terminals. Leave jumper wire connected until diagnostic monitor tone sounds (about 5 seconds). Disconnect jumper wire. Fault code is cleared.

(Comment) After doing this, I heard the loud tone and it immediately gave a different code, but I turned the key to the OFF position and then back ON after disconnecting the jumper.....NO MORE LIGHT!!!

Here's an additional variation: 96 Mazda B-4000 (aka Ford Ranger) has a pretty blue air bag module behind the right side kick plate. It does not have the ywo pin diagnostic connector (and so far have not found one between the I/P and stereo). It is suggested to go through the 128 or 256 key cycles (on and off) to reset the module and get rid of the Code 52.

Something else we found in the course of this investigation was that there is an airbag / alternator fuse in the fuse panel on the left face of the dashboard (facing drivers door), on our B-4000 position 15 with a 7.5 A fuse. The 10 amp fuse is in the black fuse and relay box under the hood (drivers side close to fire wall) the clip to release is facing the firewall.

We had another problem with a corroded wire going from the module to the drivers side crash sensor. I replaced those wires and have not had a repeat of that problem.