Alfa 156 Air Bag Light, Any Ideas?

[alex_p]

The red airbag light on my 52 plate 156 has just started to stay on all the time. On saturday it was going on and off every so often but now, when i start the car, it stays illuminated all the time. The check still completes and says all is ok as usual and other than the light everything seems fine. I'm hoping its a loose connection somewhere! Does anyone have any experience of this? If so any ideas of a quick fix? If no fixes are easy, any ideas how much its going to cost and if the airbags are still working? Cheers

[pdV6]

I think (but I'm not sure with the 156) that if the red light is on then the airbags and seatbelt pretensioners are disabled.

It could be something as simple as a loose connection (the connector blocks under the seats are a good place to start looking) but curing the problem may not clear the light as the airbag ecu may need to be reset / fault codes deleted.

[jezb]

Common problem unfortunately.

Needs resetting by someone with the Alfa diagnostics.

[DamienCBR]

Mine has started to go on and off a few times too.

"its an alfa sir they all do that"

D

[alex_p]

I had a play about with the electrical junction boxes under the seats (there seemed to be some odd terminals which didn't go anywhere, didn't like to think too much about them!) when i got home from work and seem to have at least got the light to go out! It does come back on as part of the start-up check so i've not just unplugged something... I'll see how it goes, i've got to get one of the keys re-coded at the weekend so might get them to have a quick look...

[Horza]

Do a search on www.alfa156.net in the technical 156 forum and you'll find numerous guides to diagnosing mystery airbag light problems.

Still, because it was intermittent at first, I'd put my money on it being the connector under the seat.

[swindorski46]

I'd say connector under the seat.

I had the same problem, fiddled around with it endlessly,often just raising and lowering the seat height fixed it temporarily!!!

In the end I sprayed the junction boxes under the seat with WD40 and snipped the cable tie which was too tight and causing tension, ensured no cables were being snagged or trapped by seat movement and it's been fine for the last 8 months. Gleaming!