Air bag light - double check

[gumby6371]

Time has come to fix the annoying airbag light, as I've not got PP2000 yet I'll just strip the under seat connectors both sides and hope for the best.
I've downloaded Farmer pug's you tube video to the laptop and will probably tackle the job tomorrow but first.....

I know I need to leave the car for 15 minutes or so to allow it to nod off before messing with the air bags but does unlocking and opening the doors wake it up?
If so I'll leave them all open before hand but that means keeping an eye on it in case a local scroat decides to half inch anything.

Might sound a silly question but I'd rather look silly asking than describing my black eye and broken nose after the airbag deploys

[rwb]

That does wake it up.

Maybe easiest to disconnect the battery?

There are no silly questions, but sadly many silly answers.

[jonsowman]

Disconnect the battery and then leave it for 15 minutes. Don't tamper with the airbags with the battery connected. Make sure you shut the BSI down correctly (search for "bsi reset procedure").

And you may already know this but I feel it should be restated - don't multimeter airbags! The small test current can trigger them.

[gumby6371]

Luckily I'm clueless with electrics so don't own a multimeter!
Disconnecting the battery looks like the answer, thanks gentlemen

[scoopeydiesel]

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago, the airbag light coming on intermittently. I messed a little with the connectors under the seats, slightly bent the pins in the plugs, now ever so slightly as you won't get them to connect again. All fine after but i did it without disconnecting the battery which i would not recommend. Did the BSI reset a week after as drivers stopped working and bingo working after the reset. Easy to do the BSI reset thanks to this club.

[scoopeydiesel]

Should have said drivers window, silly me.

[markw]

The air bag side of those connectors has an ingenious shorting link inside so that before the plug is fully withdrawn, it shorts the two pins out to prevent accidental voltages appearing on them. So as long as it's in place. and touching both pins you should be fine with bending the pins a little.

[gumby6371]

So I set about tackling the air bag light issue yesterday morning, got the leccy seats raised and fully back then disconnected battery following the 3 minute rule.
Then realised there was an awful lot of connectors under a leccy seat compared to my usual poverty spec cars!
Traced wiring back from the pre-tensioner and identified the relevant connectors complete with the shorting link described by Markw, thanks for that.

Dragged the extension lead and soldering iron up the garden from my workshop (shed) and realised the bloody thing had died, started swearing under my breath and proceded to put everything back together.
Reconnected battery and guess what, airbag light went off after about 4 seconds! sat there for a minute moving the seat around but so far it stayed off

I'm always telling people to use the 'turn it off, turn it back on again' method with puters but didn't realise it worked on cars aswell, I think I might set up my own garage and see how far this new found skill gets me

[lozz]

Ive fixed loads of airbag faults with no-diag equiptment.

glad to hear you got it sorted.

[gumby6371]

Such a pleasant experience driving to work this morning with no warning lights on the dash for the first time since I bought it!

Intermittent coolant level light fixed by replacing with sensor from a breaker - cost £1
Permanant airbag light fixed by reseating connectors - cost Nil
Internittent EML (anti polution fault) will hopefully be cleared for good by a can of electrical contact cleaner on the MAF sensor.
Good news is the other half just rang to say a PP2000 shaped parcel has just arrived so guess what I'll be doing after work

[markw]

I'm always telling people to use the 'turn it off, turn it back on again' method with puters but didn't realise it worked on cars as well

I'm going to needing a clutch soon, d'ya reckon it'd work for me?

[gumby6371]

Its hitting a 100% success rate for me so well worth a try

[GingerMagic]

Can you pop round my place and give my windscreen a looking over, maybe see if you can get the TAX disc to renew itself..?? I've tried the ' aggressive pointing ' method, I've even waved a Bourbon Biscuit in front of it but nothing seems to work.
Maybe you can use my TAX disc trial as a platform to promote your new found skills...

[jonsowman]

I've tried the ' aggressive pointing ' method, I've even waved a Bourbon Biscuit in front of it but nothing seems to work.

[lozz]

Can you pop round my place and give my windscreen a looking over, maybe see if you can get the TAX disc to renew itself..?? I've tried the ' aggressive pointing ' method, I've even waved a Bourbon Biscuit in front of it but nothing seems to work.
Maybe you can use my TAX disc trial as a platform to promote your new found skills...

tax n post.jpg