Technical 2 x Airbag lights and fuel cut off unavailable Warnings

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Technical 2 x Airbag lights and fuel cut off unavailable Warnings

B7TMW

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Daughters come home from uni for the weekend and got all the way from Nottingham to Reigate when the 2 airbag lights appeared and fuel cut off warning came up.

We get the "normal" flashing mileage and occasional power steering fault which always cures themselves.

She'll be taking it back to Notts on Sunday but any ideas on what I can look into in the meantime?

Sorry but I don't have the software............

2008 500 Lounge 1.2.

Any assistance would be appreciated.
 
There's a main airbag light (red) and a secondary orange one for the passengers airbag.

I'll have a look when I go for the daughter in a few mins! its easy to miss whats staring you in the face? Well there you go I see them now!
Another though not directly related to your fault have you ever replaced the engine earth strap? It's known to fail but look fine, if no then it will need doing cheap of Ebay
 
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Thanks.

I'll do a battery test. I'm skeptical to be honest. It's always started on the button even in the recent sub zero temps. Cranking never seems lazy. Plus the airbag lights came on while driving so the battery should have been getting full charge off the alternator.

We have had the occasional flashing mileage and loss of power steering since buying it 2 years ago. And it had the same battery back then.

Earth strap is another thing I'll check.

I've only got the car until Sunday afternoon and won't see it again for a few months. I did disconnect the battery for a couple of hours this afternoon but it didn't solve anything.
 
I had a similar problem with my Panda, power steering light coming on, trip resetting, random warning lights. Started on the button every time, battery was tested said it was fine. For the sake of £50 - got a new battery anyway and it's been fine ever since.
Mate had similar problems with his XKR, all solved with a new battery.

Spike
 
The sensors are very prone to drops in voltage, if the battery has faulty r dead cells then that may affect it. The fact that it starts perfectly doesn’t mean it’s good. The fact that you get power steering fault as well reinforces that it’s the battery. If it still does it after a new battery then try a new earth strap in fact might be worth doing it the other way around as the earth strap is just a few quid.
 
Interesting thread, I let my car sit for about 3 months then Wen I jump started it last week my airbag light was on but I've never had a problem in 10 years and it wasn't on before i left the car sitting so I no there's nothing wrong with it, my battery is totally dead now and if your Central locking dont work that's 100% battery as mine don't work either. I'd say get a new battery, or unplug the airbag wire and plug it back in may reset it.
 
I'm ordering the earth straps (battery to chassis and the chassis to engine) first. Tomorrow I'm checking and repairing if required, the tailgate wiring.

Battery is dated 03/2016. It was new a few months before we bought it. the car doesn't sit at all but understand the sensitivity of sensors etc.

Do the airbag lights reset themselves or do they need resetting via software? I deal in BMW's and on those, brake and EML warnings all reset themselves but anything airbag related, needs a reset.

Thanks for all replies so far
 
I'm ordering the earth straps (battery to chassis and the chassis to engine) first. Tomorrow I'm checking and repairing if required, the tailgate wiring.

Battery is dated 03/2016. It was new a few months before we bought it. the car doesn't sit at all but understand the sensitivity of sensors etc.

Do the airbag lights reset themselves or do they need resetting via software? I deal in BMW's and on those, brake and EML warnings all reset themselves but anything airbag related, needs a reset.

Thanks for all replies so far



If they are just sensor errors the errors may remain as stored codes shown as intermittent but the lights will go out on the dash.
 
Will need to get it plugged in now. This morning I did all the tailgate wiring (all had exposed conductors and two wires broken) and I've replaced the earth strap with a spare BMW one I had on the shelf. It was very corroded at the gearbox point so after cleaning it and coating the surfaces with vaseline, i know that's all good as well. I also put a known good battery that is fully charged to it via jump leads.

The plus point is we now have a working boot light! My daughter also said that a couple of times she's been driving and the "boot open" warning has come up. So that'll be sorted as well.

The negative point is the airbag lights are still on along with the small orange fault triangle, the fuel cut off is still inactive according to the dash and the seatbelt light is on despite both seatbelts being fastened. HOWEVER, the warning tone does not sound.

So I'm stumped. Car is now back on the road up to nottingham and I will have it back in approx. a month.

Anyone near nottingham with the software that can plug it in and give me some pointers for when it comes back? I will of course pay for any time.

I need to sort the software out myself really.
 
My daughter came home last night and her dashboard was like a christmas tree with fuel cut off unavailable and mileage flashing.

On Saturday the car was difficult to start eventually started after cranking for 5 seconds but there was a big plume of blue smoke!!

Gonna check the earth straps tonight and a friend has a garage and has a snap on code reader.

Must say though that the stop start hasn't worked for the best part of 12 months.

I have emailed him the link to this thread!!!

Hopefully its the earth link that's failed else its 200 quid for a new battery!!! Positive side is at least its nearly the end of the month!!!
 
Well, I have put a new battery on it and its made no difference. Code scanner is saying that the Air bags are inop. An auto electrician my mate uses says this is systematic of a module failure. Quick google search sends me back to this site with a mention of the good old tailgate wiring issue giving rise to this error. So maybe the boot wiring has popped the module?? Car isn’t at home at moment so will have to wait till tomorrow to take the grommet out and have a look.
 
Well, I have put a new battery on it and its made no difference. Code scanner is saying that the Air bags are inop. An auto electrician my mate uses says this is systematic of a module failure. Quick google search sends me back to this site with a mention of the good old tailgate wiring issue giving rise to this error. So maybe the boot wiring has popped the module?? Car isn’t at home at moment so will have to wait till tomorrow to take the grommet out and have a look.

Please keep us posted on this. Thanks
 
Boot wiring perfect so probs an air bag ecu issue.

Read on here numerous posts of being able to reset the airbag ecu. My mate who has the garage has never used his snap on reader for anything like this and other posts suggest having to use a special type of lead.

His is like a transmitter that plugs in the ODB port and then like a snap on iPad that talks to the transmitter and then I’m guessing there is some sort of Bluetooth comms between the 2 units?? Does anybody know if this methodology would reset the air bag or is there a particular lead / software that is required to perform this operation??

I have found a company on line that can reset the air bag ecu for 30 quid but will this sort the problem and will the ecu have to be relearned to the car?? I have to post my unit to them and then they post it back.

As previously stated my mate is a mechanic and uses his machine to generally fault find issues on cars and replace the components etc he has never tried to reset an air bag ecu so this is sort of new terrortary for him any help advice greatly received.

When we bought the car we bought it with an extended 2 yr warranty but reading the exclusions it mentions air bag and wiring although it doesn’t mention modules but what it does say is that if the problem is found to be something not covered by the warranty then we will be liable for the cost of finding the fault so don’t really wanna take the risk for 30 quid or if my mates computer will reset it.
 
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