Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

The passenger airbags will fire.

The occupancy sensor only turns OFF airbags if the seat is known to be not occupied. If it can't determine occupancy status it defaults to ON.

The only way to de-activate it is either through a working sensor de-activating it (possibly in combo with the seatbelt latch switch), or using those de-activation switches that are fitten on ISOFIX cars (I think) opposite the sport button...


So don't worry, in the event of bad things, EVERYTHING will try go off, even if the car knows there are faults. Ie, my seatbelt pre-tensioner wire connector has been damaged, I need to replace it, the car knows it can't see the pre-tensioner, but it still says it will send a trigger signal on the SIM start up test sequence info screens in the INPA software.


Dave
 
Thanks for that clarification point
Makes me feel better with passengers on board
Is it possible to take the airbag LED out as no fix is forthcoming?
 
I think the problem is that when the light is activated for this fault, it's for an intermittent one :(

So removing the light is bad, because one day if you have a serious fault (and the code was cleared from the intermittent one), you won't be informed. That is less than ideal really... that said, you won't know if a more serious fault occurs when the light is already on for something less serious. It's a bad system imho, and these intermittent faults should self-clear if the fault isn't present after say 10 initialisations.

The difficulty is that if you fake an occupied signal all the time, you then have to consider the seatbelt warning will be on because the car thinks the seat is occupied by a non-belt wearing occupant... a shame that it is a feature of cars these days... saving idiots from themselves by making it so annoying to not wear their seatbelt that they put it on :roll:


I need to sort my primary problem first, then look into this more common intermittent one :)

Dave
 
My light is on but its because my alternator died while I was drving. It also drained the battery. Once I was able to fix the alternator the red airbag light never went away. I never got a chance to try resetting the airbag to see if the light will turn off.
 
My light came on for ? reason. Stays on. Any recall information I could find refers to the -04-06 leaving my 03 out in the cold. BMW dealer checked campaigns on the car by VIN and remarkable (right) came out with nothing. If I was BMW I would pay close attention to the liability issues arising from people rightly disregarding a false light and as "good will campaign" I would fix it. John
 
Light just appeared on the dash when i was filling up gas over the weekend and it won't go out.

Tried disconnecting battery for more than 15 minutes but did not work.

I'm off to my Indy to have the codes read and reset.
 
sent it to the stealers

fault code was for the airbag control unit

from the technical bulletin of bmw

step 1 is to reprogram software, if step 1 fails, step 2 is to replace airbag control unit

step 1 so far cleared the light from the dash, and multiple start ups indicate they function as normal as they light up and goes off after you start the engine

my zeddy is a 2003 august build fyi
 
Thanks "m44rrt" for suggesting!!!I I checked out your link http://www.bimtronics.com and got the Seat Occupancy Simulator, plugged it in and it fixed it!!!! Saved quite a bit of cash too :)
 
simon34 said:
Thanks "m44rrt" for suggesting!!!I I checked out your link http://www.bimtronics.com and got the Seat Occupancy Simulator, plugged it in and it fixed it!!!! Saved quite a bit of cash too :)
Click to expand...

If it simulates the seat being occupied then surely the seatbelt warning will go off all the time?
 
sp3ctre said:
simon34 said:
Thanks "m44rrt" for suggesting!!!I I checked out your link http://www.bimtronics.com and got the Seat Occupancy Simulator, plugged it in and it fixed it!!!! Saved quite a bit of cash too :)
Click to expand...

If it simulates the seat being occupied then surely the seatbelt warning will go off all the time?
Click to expand...

Thats what I don't get...

The occupancy sensor just changes the return signal voltage iirc (would need to check)

Probably just a resistor of the right type in a plastic box kinda thing :D

But yes, then what happens to seatbelt thingy? Maybe it also intercepts that (via the big main plug under the seat?) and basically sets that to engaged too?

All starts to sound nice, until someones becomes unclipped without knowing, or genuinely forgets, and then it's not warned for... does seem like a badly designed system. Volvo's had this back in the 80's and it worked, so BMW getting it so badly wrong decades later is pretty lame in this case!

Dave
 
Hi had my Z4 four weeks and airbag light come on - think this was due to me putting laptop case on drivers seat!! Confused it

Order a box from EBay Spain that may turn the airbag light off, i believe it a just sends a signal regarding the floor occupancy mat and tells there a passenger all the time, i find out this week Sensor was only £8.95 was worth a go there a UK version £15.99.

What a poor area of design by BMW!!!
 
Finally got my airbag light sorted. The RH B Pillar sensor was u/s. £270. Fixed the problem for 2 weeks, then it came on again. Then the main ecu was found to be momentarily giving a lower than expected voltage to the satellite sensor. We're talking half a volt drop for a millisecond over a two day period!! Enough to trigger the light. New ecu; £370 plus fitting. At least the main dealer (Malton) was good enough to diagnose it for free each time. Next time I'll use a little piece of black tape...

Just taken my drivers door card off to find out why there is a rattle. Found the rear window clamping plate bolt, AND the rear guide attachment bolt in the door bottom. Where are these things made for heavens sake? And do they not have Loctite or locknuts there? :x
 
Hi

I had my airbag light come on on the dash.
The next day my windows/roof/lights/wipers/central locking/alarm basically everything was playing up ...
Every now and then the windows would go up the lights would come on but the instrument cluster wouldnt backlight for the first few minutes
Then the roof 'might' work to get it down but wouldnt get it back up ...

Took it to an indi in Salisbury (Emtec)
They diagnosed a faulty instrument cluster ... within an hour or so ... Local BMW Dealer wanted it for 2 days diagnosis ...
Replaced cluster ~£750 (£550 part ... £200 diagnosis and installation / coding etc)
Whilst connecting the new cluster they then informed me the Airbag control unit needed replacing ...
Booked it in again
Replaced Airbag control unit ~ £370 (£293 part ... £77 installation)

Unfortunately then someone key'd the car all along the drivers door that was another £235

Then the service light popped up and needed an inspection 2 with a brake fluid change ...
£325.63


Oh well ... looking forward to next month ... 29th June and heading off for 2500 mile drive around France with a fellow Z.


On the airbag light issue I'm thinking now purchasing an additional warranty pack might have been worth while ... but I've paid it all now ...
 
Dr _Rod said:
Hi had my Z4 four weeks and airbag light come on - think this was due to me putting laptop case on drivers seat!! Confused it

Order a box from EBay Spain that may turn the airbag light off, i believe it a just sends a signal regarding the floor occupancy mat and tells there a passenger all the time, i find out this week Sensor was only £8.95 was worth a go there a UK version £15.99.

What a poor area of design by BMW!!!
Click to expand...

So, did it work?
 
Yes I too have the dreaded "light"

On all the time , had it reset at the dealer to have it re=emerge 2 days later

DAMN..!!!
 
I called BMW service they told me to bring it in for 1 to 2 days. They are going to remove the seat, remove the bottom of the seat and install a new sensor without any charge. I'm worried they will do some damage to the seat thought/
 
Hi yes and no!!!

The little sensor from eBay - was a bugger to install, in the end me and my brother took the passenger seat out !!

The results - mixed after install

All the time the seat belt warning noise and sign were on!!!! -
Read the detail unit states that you have to leave the passenger seat belt in all the time !!!

So altered the cables and then that stopped !!!

Bought a fault code reader does everything but air bags another £225!!!

Went to dealer to get light switch off -

Fault memory:-

Good news fault 9893 SBSL error regarding the seat occupancy mat not present !!

Bad news - seat belt buckle - short circuit - Fault 988F SBSL - present

£37 for telling another fault - great

Think I cured one fault and got another!!!
Question please – I am best getting rid of the eBay box and buying this http://www.bimtronics.com/ and maybe, just maybe after another visit to dealer i get this light off!!!

This car is great to drive, I work as a process engineer and had Audi’s in the past but the build quality of the Z4 trim and interior is poor, was speaking to an employee in the dealer parts department and he said that the Z4 was the poor relation of the BMW arena as certain parts are produced in Thailand as it was done to reduce costs as the cars built in America, and he apologies for the BMW build quality !! Is this TRUE??

One sad BMW and get no where driver :headbang:
 
Yes my airbag light has been on since I've owned it 3 years now it's 2004 dealer said would need it for days so didn't want to pay 400 quid for a car wash lol
Andy from Warrington
 
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