Mat sensor / Airbag light

R

RagingRtd

Member
 Richmond
So, I'm pretty sure my passenger seat mat sensor has failed. It no longer complains if someone is sat in the seat without the belt on (or does randomly for about 2 seconds then stops). The airbag warning light has also come on, so I think this is the likely culprit.

My question is what is the effect of this? Will the airbag system still deploy on the driver side if there was to be an accident? Or does the whole system switch off in the event of a detected failure?

The car spends most the time to and from work where it would be only me in it. I am wondering how badly I want it fixed.
 
Your first port of call should be to check the connections under the seat, if one of these has worked itself lose then that could be the cause. Are your seats electric or heated, if yes, are either of these working?

I'm not too clued up on the airbag system itself, but I'm sure somebody will be along soon to help you out. If you have an MOT coming up in the near future it would be worth getting it sorted otherwise it'll fail.

Andrew.
 
Motors and heating still work.

Ah, didn't know it was an MOT fail. Probably worth fixing then - though I've got about 9 months left.
 
The system will fail safe. It will assume the seat is occupied in a collision and deploy the airbag. Which would be a shame if the seat were in fact unoccupied. But in an accident severe enough for deployment I suppose the need to replace all the passenger pyrotechnic devices isn't the biggest concern.
 
bcworkz said:
The system will fail safe. It will assume the seat is occupied in a collision and deploy the airbag. Which would be a shame if the seat were in fact unoccupied. But in an accident severe enough for deployment I suppose the need to replace all the passenger pyrotechnic devices isn't the biggest concern.
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You'd think that would be so, but in my old Z4 I hit a kerb at around 30mph, this set the side airbag off. After a thorough inspection from the garage, the only casualty was a tyre and a cracked undertray, even the geometry was still perfect.

Andrew.
 
RagingRtd said:
Motors and heating still work.

Ah, didn't know it was an MOT fail. Probably worth fixing then - though I've got about 9 months left.
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The heaters, motors and mat sensor all plug into a yellow masterplug under the seat. The mat plug could still have come lose. It's only a 30 min job to remove the seat, 5 bolts and you're done. There's a good guide on here somewhere. If you take it to a garage, they'll only do the same and charge you for an hour's labour.

I see you're in Richmond, is that Surrey Richmond? If so I'm only round the corner and would be happy to help you out one day.

Andrew.
 
Yeah... that Richmond. Kew specifically.

I wouldn't mind assistance. Due to living in a flat and no garage I don't have much in the way of tools or working area. The car has had a number of faults and been through the wars a bit recently, so I'm trying to show it some love!
 
I'm not a mechanic by any means, but I'm quite handy and can usually work out things with a bit of fiddling! I don't have any diagnostics equipment, but I'd be happy to help you remove the seats and check the connections. I'm also in a flat but have an underground garage with lighting and it's dry and reasonably warm so we could give it a try sometime. Might be able to help with a few of the other bits and bobs also.

I'm in between Ham and Kingston so not far from you. Drop me a PM and we can arrange something when we're free.

Andrew.

RagingRtd said:
Yeah... that Richmond. Kew specifically.

I wouldn't mind assistance. Due to living in a flat and no garage I don't have much in the way of tools or working area. The car has had a number of faults and been through the wars a bit recently, so I'm trying to show it some love!
Click to expand...
 
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