B5 1.8 Se Airbag Light

MaverickTDi

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Hi folks,

Just bought a 2000 1.8 SE saloon and the airbag light is illuminated on the instrument cluster. The seller had the onboard computer interrogated and it registered these faults;

01217 - side airbag igniter driver side (N199) resistance too high
00588 - airbag igniter driver side (N95)

I have read that the connector under the seat is often the culprit, however, I have disconnected and reconnected and still the same.

Can anyone help/advise on how I'd rectify this issue?

Thanks.
 
Disconnecting and connecting the wire doesn't mean that the light will go off. You either need to reset it or try to disconnect battery for 24hrs.
 
Disconnecting and connecting the wire doesn't mean that the light will go off. You either need to reset it or try to disconnect battery for 24hrs.

Cheers for the reply mate. When you say reset, do you mean clear the fault via VCDS? Also has the battery disconnect proven successful? That won't effect any other system will it?

Cheers.
 
Im not sure how it is with b5 to be honest as I always used vcds anyway. Im sure one of the b4 gurus will be here soon with the right answer
 
When doing airbag work disconnect the faulty sensor switch ignition on then disconnect battery, leave 5 mins, reconnect airbag, reconnect battery with ignition off, switch on and start should have reset. You may also have to do TB alignment and a drive to adapt fuel trims etc so it may just be easier to get VCDS and just clear them.
 
Cheers Bradderz. I shall give your theory a try and feedback. Upon quick inspection there is a procariously placed loom just floating under the seat, I assume that's the airbag loom?

Just bought the car and fortunately it has 10 months MOT so I've got a while to sort this out.
 
Bradderz, it didn't work :0(

Going by the fault codes I got (see first post) could it be another airbag connection?

Cheers.
 
N95 is the steering wheel
N199 is the drivers seat

Airbag faults cannot be erased with battery removal or any other messing around, you must use VCDS or similar to clear the codes.

What you need to do is clear the codes then see what comes back. If they both come back then there is some fault with both the steering wheel airbag and the side airbag in the drivers seat.
 
N95 is the steering wheel
N199 is the drivers seat

Airbag faults cannot be erased with battery removal or any other messing around, you must use VCDS or similar to clear the codes.

What you need to do is clear the codes then see what comes back. If they both come back then there is some fault with both the steering wheel airbag and the side airbag in the drivers seat.

Ok, cheers mate. I shall get them cleared and see what reoccurs?
 
go on ebay and look for VCDS lead. They're about £10.

Software is free from ross-techs website, just need a laptop and away you go.
 
Hi mate, in a word 'no'. I'm going to buy a VCDS lead off eBay and download the software. Any recommendations on leads? I imagine there are quite a few to choose from .

Thanks.
 
I highly doubt I'm local to you. I live in a Village called Marham which is about 15 miles from Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

That's a very kind offer, thanks mate.
 
Can someone recommend a VCDS lead for my car? I'm away with work at the minute and I've not actually seen the OBD port so not 100% what 'type' is required? Also what software do I need to clear the faults?

Cheers.
 
Whilst the car was at the garage I tried to clear the airbag light on the instrument cluster.

When interrogated it threw up an airbag ECU intermittent fault?

Can anyone tell me where the airbag ECU is?

Thanks.
 
Not too bad, just a bit time consuming,

From what I remember you can just do it without taking the rear part of the centre console out if you have the right tools/small hands otherwise you'll have to take it all out to remove the heater duct that covers one of the nuts for the ecu
 
Had a play to see where this airbag ECU is located. Should be fairly straight forward to remove. Found a 'fully operational' replacement on eBay today, £40. Couldn't believe some of the prices the robbing buggers where asking though, £200+, ridiculous!!!

I was told by my local garage that the airbag ECU needs to be functioning correctly in order to allow the fault to be cleared, does this sound right? They did try and clear it but it wouldn't.

I also disconnected, cleaned and reconnected, using tie wraps, the seat airbag connectors, in hope that would clear the 'high resistance' fault code too.

Am I right in saying that if the airbag ECU is faulty the airbags in the car won't deploy? Just read that a few times on the internet whilst doing research.
 
If you have airbag light on, your airbags don't work.
 
No-one really knows.

One would imagine that the airbag unit would try its best, even with faults present, so for instance a faulty seat airbag wouldnt stop the main steering wheel airbag from deploying, but without crashing the car to test it, you cant know for sure :p
 
No-one really knows.

One would imagine that the airbag unit would try its best, even with faults present, so for instance a faulty seat airbag wouldnt stop the main steering wheel airbag from deploying, but without crashing the car to test it, you cant know for sure :p

It's difficult to judge as you say. I have seat faults and a ECU fault but would that stop the dash and steering wheel ones going off?

I must say it's incredibly un-German like to build a single point ECU which if develops a fault will stop everything working!? You would have thought there would have been a 'fail safe' mode? Well thinking about it it's not actually that hard to believe, the owners manual will spout something along the lines of 'take your car to the nearest Audi dealer blah blah'. Robbing b*#tards!

Well I sincerely hope the replacement ECU does the trick as I can't afford to throw it at Audi to fix!
 
I highly doubt I'm local to you. I live in a Village called Marham which is about 15 miles from Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

That's a very kind offer, thanks mate.

See ya in about two weeks then. :) My problem was getting annoyed over something else, jumping out and pulling the wrong lever...It had been fine for 10 months since the last reset & I f##ed it up!!!!
 
I guess the ECU fault could kill the whole thing.

A single seat fault i'd sorta doubt it.

iirc, the fault read intermittent airbag ECU fault.

Yeah, I see what your saying. I just despise these sort of faults as it's all 'maybe this or maybe that'. At least with mechanical stuff you know where you stand!
 
See ya in about two weeks then. :) My problem was getting annoyed over something else, jumping out and pulling the wrong lever...It had been fine for 10 months since the last reset & I f##ed it up!!!!

2 weeks? Are you my way?

Sorry mate you've lost me here, what do you mean?
 
You should try to clear codes and see which one comes back straight away. Intermittent error on side airbag will be most likely caused by under the seat plug. Unplugging and plugging back doesn't sort the problem. I had the same issue on my B6 and had to remove the plug and solder wires to get rid of the code.
 
You should try to clear codes and see which one comes back straight away. Intermittent error on side airbag will be most likely caused by under the seat plug. Unplugging and plugging back doesn't sort the problem. I had the same issue on my B6 and had to remove the plug and solder wires to get rid of the code.

Due to the persistent airbag ECU fault you can't physically clear any airbag related faults. My mate who owns a local garage tried, he uses the Snap-on kit, Solus Pro it's called. I'm hoping the new airbag ECU on order will rectify my problem.

Today I disconnected both seat plugs, cleaned them out and connected them back up but reinforced the connection by tying a tie wrap round it, hoping it will give a better connection? Something I read on another forum.

When you say soldered them together, don't you have 2 wires going in and 3 coming out? What do you do with the spare wire?
 
I had it on b6 so might be different but it should be self explanatory when you look at the plugs.

Do you have the code that shows that the ecu is gone?
I find it strange that you have any other airbag error when the airbag ecu is ****** and that you are still able to scan it.

I dealt with quite a few b6/b7s and if there was an issue with the ecu itself, vcds wouldn't communicate with it.
 
I had it on b6 so might be different but it should be self explanatory when you look at the plugs.

Do you have the code that shows that the ecu is gone?
I find it strange that you have any other airbag error when the airbag ecu is ****** and that you are still able to scan it.

Your right it is self explanatory when pairing up two wires with each other but one side of the connection has a third wire. I can't leave it flapping around!?

Unfortunately not, sorry. All I can tell you is the fault description 'intermittent airbag ECU fault'

The other codes are at the start of this thread.

Tbh I'm not 100% sure how long these seat airbag faults have been on. I bought the car like it. Despite the airbag ECU being goosed the seat faults may still remain logged but until I have a fully functioning airbag ECU can I do anything about the seat faults.
 
There is no point in doing anything if you don't even know if these errors are still there. Change the ecu, clear the codes and scan again and see what comes up.
 
You need VCDS, no point ******* around with these generic scanners that dont tell you half of whats going on.
 
You need VCDS, no point ******* around with these generic scanners that dont tell you half of whats going on.

Is this the full fat VCDS that the likes of VW/Audi run or the cheap kits you can by on eBay?

I don't know of anyone, locally, that has VCDS?

What would VCDS tell me that a generic one wouldn't?
 

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