I got a 2006 s40 a few weeks ago. It's never been in any accidents, and only has roughly 60k miles. I haven't had any issues, but today while stopped at a red light, the Passenger Airbag Failure light came on, along with the Brake Failure stop safely sign. It was really fast- like maybe 10 seconds, and then they turned off. The car drives fine, I didn't notice any problems at all. Just those lights turning off and on once. Should I be concerned?

 

It's unlikely that you'd have an actual failure in both systems simultaneously, so it's got to be something common. A bad alternator and the associated dying battery will often produces multiple seemingly unrelated "failures" (warning lights and messages) though if you don't have any other symptoms of a low battery, this isn't likely to be the problem. I don't think I'd get my knickers in a twist over a single 10-second "blip" like yours, but if it repeats, I'd look into what the common point is for those two systems (one of many modules in the car), and go from there.

 

Thank you, that was what I was thinking. It was such a short message, and I haven't had it again, so I figured it was probably (hopefully) nothing worrying about. I'm just super paranoid since I just bought the car.

 

just to be on the safe side, I'd probably take a look at the brake fluid reservoir just to make sure its at the appropriate level. Also sometimes the SRS connectors for the seat sensor can get bumped which can set off a fault code. SRS fault codes (aka airbags) will be stored in the computer but not all scanners read the SRS codes. A quick scan can tell you if anything was captured by the computer. You can borrow a scanner from most big box parts stores like Autozone. If there is a code, write it down then clear it. If something is truly amiss, the code will reappear.