A couple of years ago when I put the battery back, after months with it out,
the airbag idiot light on the dash flashed at me for a week or so before
resetting itself. This time it's not resetting. Instead, it has settled on
a repeating pattern of three flashes and a pause. Does that tell anyone
where I should be looking for the problem?

 

did you try and do a search???

https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ctrical+manual

 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

 

Did you solve the problem...just changed battery and have same issue !

 

Any other feedback on this will be most appreciated !

PS I have read virtually all past threads...

 

My car was giving 10 flashes of the light every time I'd take it out of storage and drive it, but recently I haven't seen it flashing. The difference? I'm driving the car at least once or twice a week, and I'm leaving the battery connected. I suspect yours may self-heal like mine seems to have done if you leave the battery connected.

I suspect the root cause of the problem is that the capacitors in the computer are getting weak. There is a LARGE bank of them in the computer (probably to act as a battery so that it can deploy the bags in a crash, even if the crash results in a power loss to the computer), and electrolytic capacitors are well known for dying of old age.

 

Interesting - I am going to proceed with "surgery" hopefully over the weekend and report back

 

BTW a friend of mine found this very interesting link for future reference

http://www.garage411.com/AirBagRestraintSystemsFD3S