(T) Airbag Problem

I have just become the proud owner of a 3 dr 1.9 JTD Stilo Dynamic and as soon as the garage I purchased it from shut for the day the driver's airbag light come on for no apparent reason and I keep getting the warning on the LCD to stop the engine due to airbag failure.

As I am unable to speak to them until the morning I was just wondering if anyone has experienced any similar problems

It's often caused by the connectors underneath the seats which are tacky to say the least on most cars these days. Thankfully on the Stilo, once you hit the jackpot, the air bag light goes out on its own and doesn't need taking to a dealer just to reset the warning light. Dealer should be able to fix in no time but there's a lot to airbag systems so they often come on again

NB the airbag warning light is saying it's found a fault and the airbag system is shut down (rather than watch out it might go off in your face!) so it's up to you whether you drive it or not

Mine used to come on all the time, mainly when there was a passenger present...

Now currently fixed - dealership had two attempts at fixing it, and ended up being the passenger weight sensor in that seat.

"NB the airbag warning light is saying it's found a fault and the airbag system is shut down (rather than watch out it might go off in your face!) "

Not true, the airbag warning light and message comes on to indicate a fault with the system, the airbag ecu SHOULD shut the system down BUT if the fault is with the ecu then there is no way of telling what the airbag system will do. Personally I would be ok with driving it but it is up to the driver to make his/her choice.

If customer wants to take away/drive his/her car with the airbag light on I ask them to sign a decleration to that effect or tell the customer infront of a witness....I dont fancy getting sued if airbag does not go off in a accident!

Are you sure NumanR? ALL of the many criteria must be met before an air bag can be allowed to trigger to go off and one of them is no faults found in the self test system.

Whilst, taken to extremes, absolutely anything can happen regardless of whether the airbag light is on or off, the air bag system should be non functional if the warning light is on

Yes I am sure, if the ecu is faulty it does not have to follow ANY criteria before it fires any airbag.

So when we manually switch the passenger air bag off and the passenger air bag warning light comes on to tell us it's non functional your saying the passenger air bag could still go off? Or is that different?


If someone intends driving with an air bag warning light on then should they pull the air bag fuse to isolate the whole system?

When you operate the switch for passenger airbag you do not interrupt the wiring to the airbag you send a signal to the ecu to do it. The ecu can still IF FAULTY fire that airbag. Strictly speaking it should be an AA recovery, if you go by the book. Personally knowing how few ecus I change I would carry on driving, but thats my risk, I certainly wouldnt have children in a front seat with an airbag malfunction warning light on.

Thanks for the info NumanR. That's very interesting.

Someone is truly having a laugh with airbag systems. If you turn an air bag off then it should be off- off- OFF, fail safe no ifs or buts or maybes but completely non functional with no hope of life. As the dodo.

Quite frightening some of the systems that can kill you but totally rely on 10p microchip having a good day

A few days ago the light came on on my 2002 1.9 JTD. This was the second time it happened. The first time I hit the passenger seat and the light didn't come on again after restart. This time I wasn't so lucky. So I went to the dealer. The guy said the light does not come off by itself (security measure, to make sure you don't drive around if there's even the slightest chance of something being wrong with it); and what he did (or I thought he did) was disconnect the wiring underneath driver's seat and reconnect again. Light went off. So I imagine that first time the light went off because the circuit was somehow disconnected, temporarily, by my hit. Though I cannot be so sure, since the engine was off at that time. Probably a battery disconnect would have solved the problem as well? Who can tell?

Regular occurance with my JTD and my 1.6. I get under the seat, disconnect and reconnect. Works everytime, somebody will tell you how dangerous this can be but when you see the dealer do exactly the same thing then I wont waste my time taking it to them. If they effected a permanent fix then I would.

Forgot to say the dealer actually connected the examiner to the car and checked ECU for error codes, THEN disconnected/reconnected the wires.

There is a permanent fix as per dealer issued service bulletin,suggest you take it to a good dealer.Doing what you are doing will only loosen the terminals more & more.

hi

i had this constant problem with my 1.6 and after 4 attempts at numerous things at dealers - they finally took it in for 2 weeks and completely replaced the loom and all wiring units under the seats - havent had it since !!!

and it didnt cost me anything even though it wasnt under warranty