B1B03 is the Chrysler code for the two driver airbag squib wires reading shorted to each other. The occupant restraint controller sees low resistance between the pair and stops trusting the circuit. Like the other driver squib codes, the repair happens at the wiring or the parts.
Driver squib 1 uses two wires, a line 1 and a line 2, and the airbag fires when the ORC bridges them through the squib. With the ignition on, the module measures the resistance between those two lines. B1B03 sets when that reading comes back too low, which the factory wording calls DRIVER AIRBAG SQUIB 1 CIRCUIT SHORTED TOGETHER.
The threshold is looser than most people expect. The Chrysler test procedure calls the circuit shorted if resistance between line 1 and line 2 measures below 10,000 ohms at the ORC connector. Ten thousand ohms is a long way from bare copper touching bare copper, so a film of moisture, road salt, or the wrong grease bridging two pins is enough to set this code.
So the search starts at the connectors. A dead short in the harness is possible, but corrosion inside a connector body and a chafed clockspring ribbon come up more often on the driver circuit, since that is the loop that moves every time the wheel turns.
B1B03 is a circuit fault. It is a resistance reading the ORC takes on a live circuit, so it has no connection to a stored deployment or a crash record, and it does not lock the module. Fix the short and the module drops the code on its own during the next self test.
No. There is nothing sitting in the module's memory to erase here. A reset is for a module holding crash data after an accident, and B1B03 is a wiring or component problem the module is reporting in real time.
Because contamination causes so many of these, cleaning and drying the driver airbag and clockspring connectors is worth doing before anything gets replaced. If the clockspring or the bag turns out to be shorted internally, we ship genuine OEM clocksprings and driver airbags. If the vehicle was in a collision and the ORC is also carrying a deployment record, that is where our airbag module reset applies, after the circuit reads right.
B1B03 with this meaning is a Chrysler group code, so it turns up on Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles that use an ORC, roughly the 2006 to 2015 span. Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Durango, Dodge Journey, and Chrysler 200 service information all carry it. Newer FCA vehicles report the same kind of driver circuit trouble under the generic B0001 and B0002 codes, and the B1B block is reused by other manufacturers for unrelated systems, so read this code against the right make.
Disconnect the battery, wait the two minutes the factory procedure calls for, then pull the driver airbag and inspect both halves of the squib connector under good light for green corrosion, moisture, or a spread terminal. Clean and dry before condemning anything. If the connector is clean, the clockspring comes next, then the harness between the column and the ORC, and the module last.
If the scan also shows B1B01 or B1B02, you are chasing the same circuit from a different angle. B1193 is worth reading if the vehicle has a crash in its history, since that is the kind of stored record a reset does handle.
Related codes: B1B01, B1B02, B1193, B0001
Keep reading:
Code scope: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. The same number can mean something different on another manufacturer, so match the code to your make before you act on it.
A reset clears stored crash data. A replacement part fixes a hardware fault. We have read these codes since the nineties and will tell you which one you are looking at.
Genuine OEM, tested, and shipped ground from Jacksonville, Arkansas.
Chrysler parts and codes · Do not see it listed? Request a part or call 501-988-0611.