SRS air bag lights...

[dave_s13]

Car is a Kia Magentis 2.0 petrol, obviously you are all very envious. It's on an 06 plate, 46k miles, loads of MOT and cheap

Anyway, airbag light is on. I managed to find some broken wires on the drivers side seat belt buckle so took it apart, soldered the wire up and ....the light is still on. Checked passenger side wiring and that all looks good, there's some sort of control module under the passwnfer seat too, maybe the occupancy sensor? But all wiring looks sound.

The question is, do air bag codes remain even when the issue is fixed until you reset then with a scan tool? I've hopefully got someone coming to have a look at it next week who has the proper diagnostic kit. I'm hoping that if he can't just reset the system he can at least identify the faulty component.

The other option might be to buy a diagnostic kit that will talk to the airbag system, anyone any thoughts on the above?

Thanks in advance.

[DuraAce]

dave_s13 said:

The question is, do air bag codes remain even when the issue is fixed until you reset then with a scan tool?.

Depends on the car. Some will self test and then turn the light off, some will need it doing with a scan tool even if the fault is fixed.
5 minutes with diagnostic kit will tell you.
I use an Autel scanner and it does the job ok.

[dave_s13]

DuraAce said:

Depends on the car. Some will self test and then turn the light off, some will need it doing with a scan tool even if the fault is fixed.
5 minutes with diagnostic kit will tell you.
I use an Autel scanner and it does the job ok.

Cheers for that.

Guy is charging £50 to come and plug it in.

Can get this for £80..

http://m.obd2shop.co.uk/wholesale/launch-creader-6...

Even cheaper on the bay.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

Might be a handy thing to have, especially if it can talk to my other car, a Jap import... probably won't though.

Edited by dave_s13 on Saturday 17th November 21:04

[GreenV8S]

Google suggests that you need to clear a fault code to reset the warning light.

[dave_s13]

Cheers. I'm hoping it's that simple. Seems too low mileage for a clock spring to go.

Probably best to get the Pro auto electrician to look at it. At least then if resetting the light doesn't work he should be able to isolate the problem.

[DuraAce]

dave_s13 said:

Probably best to get the Pro auto electrician to look at it. At least then if resetting the light doesn't work he should be able to isolate the problem.

Depends how much tinkering you do as to wether its worthwhile to invest in any kit but in helping out family and few work colleagues (+ cars) my autel has paid for itself ten times over at least.

[dave_s13]

I'd definitely buy one if it'd also speak to my other car. Is a jap import nissan Elgrand though and uses the nissan specific consult 2 protocol so is a bit niche. I'm pretty sure the one I've linked to won't do it.

Does your kit speak Japanese?

I do like tinkering with cars, bought this one with a buggered door lock and the airbag light for cheap. Fixed the door lock via YouTube and a Dremel multi. If I can get the light sorted for 50 quid it's still a bloody cheap car.

[E-bmw]

I have one of these & have yet to find a car it won't speak to.

Haven't tried it on yours obviously, but at the price?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Autel-MaxiDiag-Pro-MD80...

[dave_s13]

Got the codes read and it cleared off the seat belt buckle fault but left we with the above. So at least I know what the problem is.

Just having a look into options re bypassing the seat mat sensor. This car will never have and young kids in the front and it's no like the seat sensor is an easily available part, with a quick Google anyway. Dread to think what Kia would charge for one.

[E-bmw]

The thing is, it is not just kids.

If anyone is sat in the front passenger seat & the sensor is defective you have to ask the question.

In an accident necessitating air bag deployment will the passenger airbag go off with that fault?

[JustALooseScrew]

dave_s13 said:

Got the codes read and it cleared off the seat belt buckle fault but left we with the above. So at least I know what the problem is.

Just having a look into options re bypassing the seat mat sensor. This car will never have and young kids in the front and it's no like the seat sensor is an easily available part, with a quick Google anyway. Dread to think what Kia would charge for one.

It's a tricky one to call!

I had similar on my very awesome little Clio last week. (Don't we just love French electrics?)

The engine SERV light with Airbag light appeared on the dash and eventually I ended up just wiggling all the cables under the passenger seat and the next morning it seemed all be ok.

At the time it didn't occur to me to consider that there is a key switch in the passenger door card/handle to disable the passenger air bag.

Thinking back the passenger window had been left open an inch one day in the Aldi car park and there was rain water in the door pull.

I now wonder if that was the problem rather than what I did.

Returning home after an unusually long journey (100 km) where we had the heater on full and then thinking 'fvck this' and groping under the passenger seat to wiggle any wires I could get hold of in the hope of getting the dash lights to go out.

(I've only got an extremely cheap OBD2 reader which didn't give any info on the issue.)

Interesting!

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

I don’t know about Kias, but when I made up an occupancy sensor bypass for my ‘97 BMW it was possible to make the system think the seat is permanently occupied. Never going to use a rear-facing child seat, so that seemed like the best option. It worked out at just £2 in parts btw.

[dave_s13]

E-bmw said:

The thing is, it is not just kids.

If anyone is sat in the front passenger seat & the sensor is defective you have to ask the question.

In an accident necessitating air bag deployment will the passenger airbag go off with that fault?

As per what Gonzales said the emulators default to an occupied with an adult position so the airbag will go off in an accident.

As long as no babies or small kids sit there it's no problem.

This is a £600 car and it's getting fixed in the cheapest possible way I'm afraid.

I also had a Clio with the ubiquitous airbag light. Give the wiring under the the seat a wiggle and it would go out for weeks at a time.

[dave_s13]

S. Gonzales Esq. said:

I don’t know about Kias, but when I made up an occupancy sensor bypass for my ‘97 BMW it was possible to make the system think the seat is permanently occupied. Never going to use a rear-facing child seat, so that seemed like the best option. It worked out at just £2 in parts btw.

I can't help but think sticking a resistor in the terminal would trick it. And cost 20p. I assume it's currently open circuit. The connector from the control module under the seat to the car has 3 wires, can anyone here make a guess as to what they do??

[dave_s13]

Actually, thinking about how it's wired.

This is under the passenger seat



The white terminal is the cable from the seat cushions sensor. The green terminal goes on into the car.

I'm assuming that white terminal feeds in a signal that varies it's resistance depending on the weight of whatever is on the seat. I'm not electronics wizard but I wonder if chopping that wire and sticking a potentiometer in there might feed a signal into that control box it's sees as normal, I assume at the moment it's open/closed circuit. What I probably need to know thougb is what resistance = adult in seat so fire the airbag.

Don't suppose anyone on here has access to wiring diagrams for these do they?

Edited by dave_s13 on Sunday 18th November 18:17

[E-bmw]

dave_s13 said:

E-bmw said:

The thing is, it is not just kids.

If anyone is sat in the front passenger seat & the sensor is defective you have to ask the question.

In an accident necessitating air bag deployment will the passenger airbag go off with that fault?

As per what Gonzales said the emulators default to an occupied with an adult position so the airbag will go off in an accident.

As long as no babies or small kids sit there it's no problem.

Yeah, I get the logic, just had to ask the question & play Devil's Advocate.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

dave_s13 said:

I can't help but think sticking a resistor in the terminal would trick it. And cost 20p. I assume it's currently open circuit. The connector from the control module under the seat to the car has 3 wires, can anyone here make a guess as to what they do??

For the BMW occupancy mat bypass, it was a resistor, a capacitor and a diode. Without the online guide I found I wouldn’t have had a clue though.

[dave_s13]

Cheers.

After much googling I've found the part I need.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...




About £100 for a new seat pad sensor. Not an inconsiderate sum on a shed. Saying that, it's only on 46k miles and the interior looks and smells new!

Just waiting to hear back from some eBay sellers that do the emulators. They are probably just a few pennies worth of electronic components in a sealed box.

Don't suppose you have a link to the BMW guide do you? I suspect they work in pretty much the same way.

Edited by dave_s13 on Sunday 18th November 21:21

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

My bookmark for the site (I think it was Swedish) got lost in a computer meltdown, but here's something similar:

https://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/forum/f74/diy-passe...

[dave_s13]

Nice one.

It's not gonna cost much to knock this up, plug it into the seat sensor input at the control module under the seat and see what happens.



Only trouble is I've got to pay someone £15 a pop to get the codes cleared.