Air bag light

[Agri_Yuppie]

Hi all I am having problems with my new to me 04 1.9 Partner. I cannot get the dash airbag light to go out. I have tried wriggling all connections I can find. But no joy. I don't have a Lexia. Have tried a normal OBD reader, but no connection was possible. Do I need to have it hooked up  to a Lexia ??? Would this identify the air bag causing problem. MOT time is soon !!! Any ideas please. Many thanks Fred

[cancunia]

It may be that your Partner is too old for an OBD reader to work. IIRC, it was 2005 before it was compulsory for OBD. If so, the only diagnostic tool option is Lexia.
In order to diagnose an airbag fault, it is possible to buy resistors to put in place of actual airbags or maybe seatbelt pre-tensioners, doing so will help isolate the fault. I've not done this myself so can't say how safe / easy / successful it is.

[Gryffindor]

Post a new thread asking if anyone near you has Lexia and might help.

[Agri_Yuppie]

Post a new thread asking if anyone near you has Lexia and might help.

Many thanks I will give it a try.

[Agri_Yuppie]

It may be that your Partner is too old for an OBD reader to work. IIRC, it was 2005 before it was compulsory for OBD. If so, the only diagnostic tool option is Lexia.
In order to diagnose an airbag fault, it is possible to buy resistors to put in place of actual airbags or maybe seatbelt pre-tensioners, doing so will help isolate the fault. I've not done this myself so can't say how safe / easy / successful it is.

Many thanks. I have heard of that idea with resistors. Not sure about the legality of it. I am trying to track down the offending airbag. So I can try and sort it out. Strangely a seatbelt warning light was on too. That was down to a connection under driver's seat. I have tried various things with the connections to airbag system under there, with no joy.

[Sol]

Hi, testing with resistors is perfectly legal, and safe if you follow the correct procedures.

The airbag circuit is 3 ohms, so you need to place a 3 ohm resistor across the terminals the airbag would connect to, with the battery disconnected, then reconnect and see if the airbag light comes on, then off again proving you have bridged out the bad item. Don't use a bit of wire, the controller needs to see 3 ohms.

Don't reconnect any airbag or SRS seat belt firing unit while the battery is connected in case you set it off. This can and does happen.

Use the same 3 ohm resistor, 5w type is fine, to bridge each airbag in turn and each SRS seat belt plug in turn. Battery off, wait 3 min, disconnect item, insert resistor in its place securely, battery on, start car and check the light comes on, and then goes out again.

Battery off, and repeat.

Make sure each other item that isn't currently being bridged by the resistor, is securely connected or it will still fail. Only bridge the plug on the cable heading away from the item you're testing.

I've done this many times and it works perfectly.

If you find you get a fail no matter what you do, the clock spring in the steering wheel unit may be split and that would have to be replaced. It's a coiled roll of ribbon cable that feeds power to the driver's airbag while allowing the wheel to rotate. It winds in each direction, unwinding again as you get to the straight ahead position. These can go wrong and bridging the airbag plug will not clear the error if this is faulty as you will still have an open circuit to the controller from the driver's airbag plug.

if the clock spring cable is broken unfortunately the only route is replacement from a breaker. It's behind the steering wheel spigot, inside the column body.

After many years, they split at the part where it changes direction and winds on the other way, from flex fatigue.

[Agri_Yuppie]

Hi, testing with resistors is perfectly legal, and safe if you follow the correct procedures.

The airbag circuit is 3 ohms, so you need to place a 3 ohm resistor across the terminals the airbag would connect to, with the battery disconnected, then reconnect and see if the airbag light comes on, then off again proving you have bridged out the bad item. Don't use a bit of wire, the controller needs to see 3 ohms.

Don't reconnect any airbag or SRS seat belt firing unit while the battery is connected in case you set it off. This can and does happen.

Use the same 3 ohm resistor, 5w type is fine, to bridge each airbag in turn and each SRS seat belt plug in turn. Battery off, wait 3 min, disconnect item, insert resistor in its place securely, battery on, start car and check the light comes on, and then goes out again.

Battery off, and repeat.

Make sure each other item that isn't currently being bridged by the resistor, is securely connected or it will still fail. Only bridge the plug on the cable heading away from the item you're testing.

I've done this many times and it works perfectly.

If you find you get a fail no matter what you do, the clock spring in the steering wheel unit may be split and that would have to be replaced. It's a coiled roll of ribbon cable that feeds power to the driver's airbag while allowing the wheel to rotate. It winds in each direction, unwinding again as you get to the straight ahead position. These can go wrong and bridging the airbag plug will not clear the error if this is faulty as you will still have an open circuit to the controller from the driver's airbag plug.

if the clock spring cable is broken unfortunately the only route is replacement from a breaker. It's behind  the steering wheel spigot, inside the column body.

After many years, they split at the part where it changes direction and winds on the other way, from flex fatigue.

Many thanks for the advice. I will invest in some

[Agri_Yuppie]

Many thanks Zion. I will invest in some resistors a see try method. The dodgy process I referred to and the other poster mentioned. Involves disconnecting the air bag and putting a resistor in its place permanently. Disabling the air bag altogether. I don't think that's legal, insurance company might not be too impressed. I certainly wouldn't either In the event of a bump. The system light would do as expected though. I will investigate the spring, she has done over 200K miles. So that is possibly the cause. I will keep you posted on any breakthroughs.

[Romahomepete]

Before you go down that line look under the drivers and pssengers front seats, under the drivers there are 2 sets of connectors and I think one or possibly 2 under the passengers. these connectors are a known problem. With the ignition off unclip them and then put them back together, electrical contact cleaner can help. I removed one set of connectors and replaced them with"choc block" connectors they were so troublesome.

It has always puzzled me as to why a dodgy connector under the drivers seat turns on the airbag ;light

Peter

[jimbo]

MY airbag light comes on if i put anything under the front seats, so I would look under the seats first as well.