Chrysler Repair: Air bag light on, but cant get DRB readout, daimler chrysler, salvage title

Question
Hello, My friend bought a 04 sebring limited conv. at an insurance auction. the car had water damage and an engine knock. knock turned out to be ac compressor bearing. My question is recently the air bag light came on for no reason and has not shut off.A couple different mechanics found no codes.The dealer will not do a diagnostic check on it because it is not yet registered.It can not be registered until after state police inspection because of salvage title and they will not inspect vehicle if the air bag light is on. Any idea what would cause this? The car only has approx 1700 miles on it. Thanks Scott

Answer
Hello Scott,
This sounds like a classic "catch 22". I can only note that there are about 16 possible reasons for the light to be "on" so that pursuing all of these is not going to be economically realistic unless you can narrow down the reason by getting a fault code readout of the air bag system using the Chrysler DRB III or a similar reader (but I can't tell you of anyother reader that will do it). I don't understand why a dealer will not do a readout unless it is registered, but I guess I can understand why the state police will not inspect it in the condition of the airbag light being "on". My inclination would be to try to find another Chrysler dealer that will do the readout, and if you can't I would ask the dealer for the contact information of the the Daimler/Chrysler regional service manager and see if you can get him to "turn around" the dealer to do the readout. If you get a readout find out the name of the fault code, the suggested repair, and the estimated cost. The most recent body diagnostic manual that I have is for '98 but it may have a procedure for following up on that specific code. Other than getting the readout done some way or another you can't really solve this one in any practical manner. There are just too many possible reasons. The most common one is a broken wire in the clockspring which is located in the steering column and connects the air bag module to the airbag controller and is necessary to deploy the airbag if it is needed. But I doubt that is the reason for the light given the short lifetime use of the car (1700 miles). I suspect it is one of the sensor for collision that may have been damaged by the water experience, but there are several of those to consider.
Roland