Technical Air bag warning light

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Technical Air bag warning light

Thanks Luke, as long as I know it's working I should be fine. I'll just have to get it fixed before I decide to sell it :)

And how much do delaers charge by the hour?
 
Barchetta has exactly the same fault..any movement of the driver seat with the ignition on trips the airbag/belt pretensioner light on the dash. No airbags and €75 for Fiat to turn it off.

Fault is down to the cheap and nasty yellow lego connectors used by Fiat. They are very simple to replace...a set of Maplin bullet plugs work fine. Or you can get an auto electrician to change them.

Up to you regarding liability etc..but the fix is very simple.
 
Oh right I didn't realise that, I got the idea by posts on here that it was a fault that made the light come on, but didn't make them stop working? Either way, I don't think it's worth risking it, I'll have to get it sorted. Does anyone know if someone could do this on the cheap? I'm skint as per usual :(
 
Whats 'dealer only' ? Turning the airbag warning light off?? Try a elm327 lead and fiatECUscan works well
 
Paul, the parts (loom) are dealer fit only. Its not a case of using bullet connectors etc for this one and turning the light off by using any equipment will result on it coming on again a hour,day,week later.

Whole job is normally £60-70 fitted....nothing really is it?
 
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As I understand it, Fiat used some weak connectors that barely survived the warranty. They will replace a section of wiring and the connectors but its out of warranty so there is a charge.
With safety equipment there is always a legal issue is it fails to work in an accident. Any non Fiat modifications could be 100% OK but proving they did not cause that failure is difficult - cant prove a negative.
That said we often get seat belt mounts welded when they rust away. That's also a modification from standard and there is never legal issue if it is done properly. It does not HAVE to be done by Fiat.
 
this mod maybe able to be done by an auto electrician who has diag equipment that can reset the light after, but he wont have been trained to fit it so will probable take him twice as long to fit the first time and end up costing more than a dealer.
that is why we call it a dealer only job
 
Have the connectors changed either by yourself or by an auto electrician. Changing 2 yellow plugs each containing 1 wire isn't a job for NASA..

Then take the car to Fiat and get them to run a full diagnostic / reset on the airbag system and the problem should be solved.
 
Its also possible to read and reset fault codes via pin3 on the bottom row of the airbag control unit (if you can get at it) without a computer / diagnostic kit. When the pin is grounded the airbag light flashes in sequence indicating the fault. When all faults have been displayed the system should reset when the ignition is switched on.
 
The wires under your chair would be for the side airbags that are mounted in the seats. The connectors that connect the seat to the body harness sometimes become loose or oxidated as suggested by Tony. Also the airbag lock on the passenger side is prone to misbehaving due to the same problems. Whatever you do you'll have to get it hooked up to a diagnostic machine to reset the airbag light, because even if you solve the problem it has to be reset with the machine before it will function properly again.

You could do this yourself. Just buy a 10euro VAG kkl-interface from China through ebay and download the free unidiag software. Perhaps I should write a how-to on this, because its really easy to do on a mk2. Then youll have to mod the cable which takes 5mins, hook it up to the car and your laptop on the other side... press connect ... read the error code. Then clean up the connectors on whichever side is not working properly, reconnect and clear the errorcodes.

Light goes out and will stay out if you did it right.


Ive got the cable and the programs just dont know how to sort out the soldering i have the same problem put computer from garage through it and it was gone for about 3 days then come back. What do i solder and where am i soldering ? im an amateur at all this so needs to be in basic forms lol
 
When the airbag light came on in my Sporting my workmate said that the local Fiat dealer had fixed the same problem on his mother's car and had cost £125.00.
I decided to take my car to JCS Fiat at Kegworth who have given me good service in the past and in 50 minutes they had fixed a problem with the exclusion unit and some connectors at a cost of £39.94 and it has been absolutely fine ever since.
Had to get it done for two reasons.
1.. the safety aspect
2.. it was due for its 4th MOT which it again passed with flying colours and again without any advisories.

You can not put a price on safety.
 
my warning light was on when i bought the car took it to Basingstoke FIAT dealer and £39.95 and the warning light was reset.
2 weeks later the light was back on!!!!
took it to FIAT again and £67.50 and the loom section was sorted and the refunded my original £40
for me it was a safety issue as i do about 350 miles a week and it'd be silly not to get it done, I'm skint as well but when it comes to safety cost ain't an issue
 
I had this on a Mk2b. The problem was the connections between the loom and the passenger airbag inhibit switch. I dismantled both the switch and the cable end so that I could properly clean the connections. I used a modified KKL lead (fitted the shorting link to access airbag ECU) with the free FiatECUScan programme and my laptop to reset the lights. That was many months ago. It's fine. It didn't involve a dealer or any new loom (clearly a dealer isn't going to start taking connectors to bits hence the recommended fitting of a new loom section).

Just to keep the safety angle in perspective, airbags may be helpful and desirable but be mindful that their development was to combat the continued aversion to wearing seatbelts in the USA. In the UK, the biggest car-related impact in reduction of fatal and serious injuries came with the seat belt law.

BTW, airbag warning lamp ON is not an MOT failure - One time I got an advisory, another time it wasn't mentioned.

red
 
(clearly a dealer isn't going to start taking connectors to bits hence the recommended fitting of a new loom section).

The connector on the exclusion switch is one of the easiest to dismantle- not even 30 secs to remove both wires- so that's not the reason. I can't go into the exact cause as it will lead to people with no idea messing around with it with the potential of costly damage.

Yes, tightening the terminals may be enough, but the modified piece of loom has a 100% success rate in solving the exclusion switch error problem.
 
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