A4 airbag warning light

[PembsA4TDi]

Hi everyone,

This must be a familiar one for all you old hands out there, but I’m new to all this. I bought my A4 Avant TDi from my local main dealer about 5 years ago as an Audi Warranted used car. It had one prior owner, and was great. After about a week, a Air Bag Warning light came on. So straight back to the dealer. They plugged in the computer, decided it was a bad connection, poked around under the passenger seat, reset the trip, and off we went. Same thing has been happening on and off since then.
Things changed at the dealer about 18 months ago. The light came on and the wife took the car in. It was connected to the computer. They isolated the problem, and refused to return the keys unless we parted with £40.

We’ve stopped using the dealer, and we have a good independent that looks after the car. Guess what happened last week. So I’ve got VAG-COM and its found this code.

1 Fault Found:
01218 - Side Airbag Igniter: Passenger Side (N200)
32-00 - Resistance too High

I reckon it’s the same intermittent bad connection. Is it safe to remake the connection, and then clear the fault code? If so how do clear the code?

[Uwe@Ross-Tech]

I *think* the right way to do this is:

- Make sure the ignition is off.
- Disconnect the battery.
- Fix the bad connetion.
- Turn the ignition ON.
- Reconnect the battery.
- Clear the codes.

The idea here being that there's no power while your fixing the connection, and that you're outside the cabin when the power is re-applied to the airbag system.

Beware however, that I accept no liability if this sequence is wrong. You should refer to the specific repair procedures for your particular vehicle before working on the airbag system.

-Uwe-

[PembsA4TDi]

Spot on, Thanks!