Technical air bag red light

[ramonbravo]

Hello everyone!!!

I have a serious problem. The airbag's red light on my dashboard is on. Yesterday I went to my local workshop and they told me there are 2 posibilities: 1º Some issue in airbag's wires
2º The Airbag's ECU (about 700€)

The ECU reference is 51827585. Somebody can help where to buy the ecu?, it doesn't matter if it's second hand
Somebody know where is the airbag's ecu inside the car. If I were able to find it I could check the wires.

Thanks in advance.

 

[neilshep]

Hello everyone!!!

I have a serious problem. The airbag's red light on my dashboard is on. Yesterday I went to my local workshop and they told me there are 2 posibilities: 1º Some issue in airbag's wires
2º The Airbag's ECU (about 700€)

The ECU reference is 51827585. Somebody can help where to buy the ecu?, it doesn't matter if it's second hand
Somebody know where is the airbag's ecu inside the car. If I were able to find it I could check the wires.

Thanks in advance.

Don't even think about DIY dignosis. Read the attached pdfs CAREFULLY and COMPLETELY.

A secondhand control unit may have been activated, and if so is useless.

The pdf's are attached to educate, not to help you do something stupid!

 

[s and b]

Hello everyone!!!

I have a serious problem. The airbag's red light on my dashboard is on. Yesterday I went to my local workshop and they told me there are 2 posibilities: 1º Some issue in airbag's wires
2º The Airbag's ECU (about 700€)

The ECU reference is 51827585. Somebody can help where to buy the ecu?, it doesn't matter if it's second hand
Somebody know where is the airbag's ecu inside the car. If I were able to find it I could check the wires.

Thanks in advance.

get the codes read for the airbag ecu
these would normally only go faulty if corrupted by say a jump start water ingress or a deployment of one of the bags
you might care to look at http://www.multiecuscan.net/ to see if your car is listed and whether the free version or the paid for vesion is needed leads are real cheap via ebay
to end i am fairly certain the hex codes can be rearranged to factory if need be

 

[lyubohar]

Hello everyone!!!

I have a serious problem. The airbag's red light on my dashboard is on. Yesterday I went to my local workshop and they told me there are 2 posibilities: 1º Some issue in airbag's wires
2º The Airbag's ECU (about 700€)

The ECU reference is 51827585. Somebody can help where to buy the ecu?, it doesn't matter if it's second hand
Somebody know where is the airbag's ecu inside the car. If I were able to find it I could check the wires.

Thanks in advance.

Hi mate. Had the same issue as you, so I though my input might be helpful.

My car was jump started in a local garage (the battery has died and they tried to start it). The result was faulty airbag ECU.

The ECU is located behind the central console. You can easily see it if you remove the panel which holds the A/C filter (on the passenger's side). It is held by a couple of bolts horizontally on the floor. But it would be hard to remove it from there, although it may be possible. I had to disassemble the whole central console, which means from the radio down to the handbrake lever - all the plastics, the arm rest, etc.

I was quoted a similar price at the dealership so I went to a local garage, specialized in electronics. The guys plugged in the chip and said it was working, not blown off, but the data was probably messed up and corrupted. What they did was overwrite with new data from the same chip and everything is fine now. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to crash somewhere But I think all is fine, because I also had other sensors that went crazy, and after re-installing the ECU they are all fine.

Alternatively you can look for crash-free ECUs in eBay, there where several options available at the time I had this problem. You only need to see the exact model of your ECU, since there are two possible brands/models which they use for our cars - Siemens and don't remember the name of the other one, I think it is some Siemens subsidiary.

Just my two cents, hope it helps

 

[s and b]

Hi mate. Had the same issue as you, so I though my input might be helpful.

My car was jump started in a local garage (the battery has died and they tried to start it). The result was faulty airbag ECU.

The ECU is located behind the central console. You can easily see it if you remove the panel which holds the A/C filter (on the passenger's side). It is held by a couple of bolts horizontally on the floor. But it would be hard to remove it from there, although it may be possible. I had to disassemble the whole central console, which means from the radio down to the handbrake lever - all the plastics, the arm rest, etc.

I was quoted a similar price at the dealership so I went to a local garage, specialized in electronics. The guys plugged in the chip and said it was working, not blown off, but the data was probably messed up and corrupted. What they did was overwrite with new data from the same chip and everything is fine now. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to crash somewhere But I think all is fine, because I also had other sensors that went crazy, and after re-installing the ECU they are all fine.

Alternatively you can look for crash-free ECUs in eBay, there where several options available at the time I had this problem. You only need to see the exact model of your ECU, since there are two possible brands/models which they use for our cars - Siemens and don't remember the name of the other one, I think it is some Siemens subsidiary.

Just my two cents, hope it helps

good post thanks
another plus for not letting flat battery cars be jump started unless the doner battery is connected for at least one minute before an attempted start
I guess most for sale on ebay are like yours in having the hex put back to factory, so your probably as well having yours done as it was
Could i ask what you were charged to have the corrupted ecu cleansed please?

 

[lyubohar]

Yeah, of course if you ask the garage - "we didn't do anything wrong". And of course refused to cover anything. I paid about 25 EUR to the official dealer to tell me what's wrong, then about 80 EUR to the electronics garage to fix the issue. Mind you I disassembled and reassembled the central console myself, didn't want anybody near my car after the battery accident

 

[mss240288]

I got my car back from my local fiat dealer for the same problem (they've had it 8 weeks) for the same problem. Had the ECU replaced, new sensors, wiring etc. 2k later I still have the same problem. Unfortunately as of Saturday its being traded in a for an Audi A3. For a car with only 32k on the clock the amount of problems I've had have forced my hand.