Passenger airbag retrofit...

IAmOrion · Jun 23, 2020

Has anyone done the passenger air bag switch retrofit? I’ve fitted the switch, the wiring was already in place (2003 E85) and connected the Passenger airbag off LED, but nothing happens. At least, the led never turns on.

I’ve checked the status of the switch using my C310+ and it correctly shows the switch is turning on/off accordingly.

The retrofit mentions coding - does anyone know what needs to be coded? I suspect this is what I’m missing as I haven’t yet coded anything but don’t know what I’m supposed to code with what tool.

Any info greatly appreciated.

Wookster78 · Jun 23, 2020

Hi, yes I have done this and you need to code it using ISTA-P rheingold, this software allows for retrofitting different options for the car. You need to select the passenger airbag bypass retrofit and the programme will essentially programme it in for you. Takes about 20 mins or so and make sure you battery is hooked up to a charger or you will have all sorts of problems

IAmOrion · Jun 23, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Hi, yes I have done this and you need to code it using ISTA-P rheingold, this software allows for retrofitting different options for the car. You need to select the passenger airbag bypass retrofit and the programme will essentially programme it in for you. Takes about 20 mins or so and make sure you battery is hooked up to a charger or you will have all sorts of problems

Ahh thanks, I guess that’s why it’s not working ha

Correct me if I’m wrong but ISTA-P doesn’t work with k+d can cables does it? I always thought only Ista D / Inpa / ncs / dis / sss worked but not ista p?

Wookster78 · Jun 23, 2020

Hi,
Yes I have it working with a usb k-d can câble obviously selected to K for the z4. You just need to have the icom simulator running using ISTA-P loader to launch the programme and it works fine.

IAmOrion · Jun 23, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Hi,
Yes I have it working with a usb k-d can câble obviously selected to K for the z4. You just need to have the icom simulator running and it works fine.

Ooh ok! I’ll have a hunt for ista-p now. (I have a few sources

)

Hopefully it’ll have a guide to setup the icom emulator.

Thanks for the heads up

Wookster78 · Jun 23, 2020

Good luck

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Good luck

So I got around to this today. I completed the retrofit via ista-p, it said completed successfully, but still my passenger airbag light doesn’t turn on when switch is off.

I’ve tested the led in the light, it’s working (at least, it’s working via a multimeter and glows when testing forward voltage). The switch appears to work also since my c310 correctly changes to on/off as I change switch position.

I’m a little confused as the led has Only 2 pins next to each other , but the plug has 2 pins with a 1 pin spacing. Meaning only 1 pin connects. I’ve tried looking for wiring diagram etc but I just can’t find any explanation!

Any thoughts?

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

IAmOrion said:
Wookster78 said:

Good luck

Click to expand...

So I got around to this today. I completed the retrofit via ista-p, it said completed successfully, but still my passenger airbag light doesn’t turn on when switch is off.

I’ve tested the led in the light, it’s working (at least, it’s working via a multimeter and glows when testing forward voltage). The switch appears to work also since my c310 correctly changes to on/off as I change switch position.

I’m a little confused as the led has Only 2 pins next to each other , but the plug has 2 pins with a 1 pin spacing. Meaning only 1 pin connects. I’ve tried looking for wiring diagram etc but I just can’t find any explanation!

Any thoughts?

Wookster78 · Jun 26, 2020

Hi, yeah you are correct both pins should touch a wire, my led looks different to yours but the plug is the same, maybe they did different led configurations for early and later year vehicles. See pics of mine, if you just move one of the wires over I think it should work fine from looking at yours

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Hi, yeah you are correct both pins should touch a wire, my led looks different to yours but the plug is the same, maybe they did different led configurations for early and later year vehicles. See pics of mine, if you just move one of the wires over I think it should work fine from looking at yours

Ahhhh interesting!! Thanks for the pictures that actually helps a bunch. I did try swapping the wires around but still no joys.

I’ll try and find one matching the part number I can see on yours though - it’s diff to the one I have

I’m also not actually 100% the coding did work now. When I read it back, it correctly states mfsw retrofit (I know that doesn’t require coding as such, it just adds it to the spec stored in the cars info) but still doesn’t state passenger airbag anywhere

Wookster78 · Jun 26, 2020

Ah yeah after I coded mine ISTAP does show it as an option fitted to the car so does sound like it may not have worked, I retrofitted the cruise control and that now also shows on the options list

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Ah yeah after I coded mine ISTAP does show it as an option fitted to the car so does sound like it may not have worked, I retrofitted the cruise control and that now also shows on the options list

I mean, it did something because now my airbag warning light keeps coming on

I clear it, 2 mins later it’s back. And that’s purely started since attempting to code the retrofit.

Also, ista-p no longer connects. Well, it connects, but can’t read vin anymore. If I enter vin manually it then complains about operation order code or something.

My INPA and ISTA won’t connect anymore either

No idea why. Bloody windows 10 and ista is iffy I suppose

Might try create a WXP VM

Wookster78 · Jun 26, 2020

I am actually running ISTA-P on windows 10 and works fine on the z4 but not on the F10 comes up with some weird error and also can’t read the Vin and won’t accept manually, did have that when I first connected the z4 but changed the usb com port to 1 and amended some of the .ini files and it worked, was a YouTube video on it not connecting the car but does work fine now on window 10

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

Wookster78 said:
I am actually running ISTA-P on windows 10 and works fine on the z4 but not on the F10 comes up with some weird error and also can’t read the Vin and won’t accept manually, did have that when I first connected the z4 but changed the usb com port to 1 and amended some of the .ini files and it worked, was a YouTube video on it not connecting the car but does work fine now on window 10

Ahh I’ll have to take a look next week when I get a chance. Damn springs snapped today so other priorities now

Wookster78 · Jun 26, 2020

Ah keeps you busy, I get bored if something does not go wrong and I have nothing to fix, then I end up going around looking for something that not quite perfect and breaking it so I can fix it again :rofl:

IAmOrion · Jun 26, 2020

Wookster78 said:
Ah keeps you busy, I get bored if something does not go wrong and I have nothing to fix, then I end up going around looking for something that not quite perfect and breaking it so I can fix it again :rofl:

as if I’m not busy enough!! Lol

Ali0191 · Aug 5, 2022

Gents,

I am planning on tackling this over the next couple of weeks but I am a complete newbie when it comes to the coding side of modding. Couple of questions:

1. If I install the switch and use it can I use my 310+ to check it has turned off the airbag and then just know the airbag is turned off? Or does it have to have the light and coded in for it to actually turn the airbag off?

I plan to complete the full retrofit but know I won’t be able to code it due to laptop access until next month. I just want to do this so I can put my kid in the car with me.

2. Where can I get ISTA-P from? Do I need to start looking for torrents?

3. Is it pretty self explanatory how to set up an icom emulator and code the retrofit?

Thanks for any help in advance!

IAmOrion · Aug 5, 2022

Ali0191 said:
Gents,

I am planning on tackling this over the next couple of weeks but I am a complete newbie when it comes to the coding side of modding. Couple of questions:

1. If I install the switch and use it can I use my 310+ to check it has turned off the airbag and then just know the airbag is turned off? Or does it have to have the light and coded in for it to actually turn the airbag off?

I plan to complete the full retrofit but know I won’t be able to code it due to laptop access until next month. I just want to do this so I can put my kid in the car with me.

2. Where can I get ISTA-P from? Do I need to start looking for torrents?

3. Is it pretty self explanatory how to set up an icom emulator and code the retrofit?

Thanks for any help in advance!

1) you can use the c310+ to check it’s state (eg, on or off) but that’s it. Worth noting there’s 2 different part numbers for the airbag light annoyingly. If you buy one, and it’s not working, get the other one lol. I forget the part numbers but I found out the hard way

2) either torrents or mega.nz downloads, I think torrent would be easiest to find. Pretty sure it’s against rules to share details of it on this site, but a google search will help you

3) in my experience, ISTA is a royal pain in the arse! It *should* be easy, but you can spend hours setting it all up and struggling to get the cables to work. Then, even if you DO make it work, you could close your laptop or VM or whatever, go back to it a month later and the bloody thing won’t work and no amount of tinkering will fix it and you have to start all over again. It’s SO frustrating. Depending on the task you need a voltage control app thing, ista, dcan/kcan daemon and plenty of free time to get it working. I use to use it a lot but yeesh it would pee me off. I swear I had to reinstall for hours everytime I needed it lol

Also, whilst ISTA/D from memory is a few GB, ISTA/P can be like 50-100GB.

Ali0191 · Aug 5, 2022

That's great, thanks for the info

kis · Aug 5, 2022

IAmOrion said:
I’m a little confused as the led has Only 2 pins next to each other , but the plug has 2 pins with a 1 pin spacing. Meaning only 1 pin connects. I’ve tried looking for wiring diagram etc but I just can’t find any explanation!

Any thoughts?

I had the same thing, I bought the wrong LED light button thing (a super cheap one from a R50). Think it needs to be a specific E85 one...

Passenger airbag retrofit...

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