Technical Airbag both lights on horn not working

[tonyholbury]

Purchased a 2008 1.1 Panda earlier this year with both airbag lights on and no horn.
Replaced control stalks/clockspring unit, I managed to get one brand new on ebay for £25 yes £25 as a garage had purchased it and the owner had scrapped the car that was damn lucky!!
No communication so purchased a 2nd hand sensor unit for £11
Purchased a brand new passenger airbag switch for £39 its the same as the punto one.
After fitting the units I removed the sensor unit and put back the original the switch reset the passenger warning light and replacing the sensor turned out the main airbag warning light. (different coding??)
Sensor is on the floor behind the bottom of the centre console you can get at it by removing the passenger side panel and its 3 10mm bolts, the plugs are sliders with a locking tab there is enough wire to see this.
The busted Horn was due to the clockspring, possibly the original fault with the airbag and the passenger switch I am guessing got broken on removal as the plug socket sticks out at 90 degrees and is easily damaged.
Anyhow both lights out they reset by themselves once the faults were fixed, I did clear the fault codes with an ebay switchable OBD2 plug and paid £50 for the Multiecuscan software which works with this plug and ELM27 units I could have left out the clearing process and saved some money but hey ho we live and learn and thats why I have been so detailed to save you guys paying out, if its both lights its probably the passenger switch has been broken (both light) Horn/ Main Airbag then its probably the clockspring the whole stalk and spring unit is one piece so if its too expensive try a breaker for a 2nd hand part.

Tony

PS if you do need to replace the sensor watch one thing some cars have pretensioners/seat belt switches, try to get a module for a similar car, it mmay need recoding as my replacement didnt work but the original did, my car has niether pretensioners not seat belt warning lights/passenger presence switches and zero wiring under the seat

 

[jrkitching]

...and paid £50 for the Multiecuscan software which works with this plug and ELM27 units I could have left out the clearing process and saved some money

It's not money wasted; useful for checking all sorts of electronic-related stuff on the car, and one day you may be grateful you've got it.

Plus, you've supported an independent developer who's done a great deal of valuable work to make it possible for us DIY types to look after our cars properly. Without MES, we'd be dependent on the franchised dealers for all manner of things we are now able to do for ourselves. That's a truly scary thought .

Buying a licenced copy of MES will likely cost you less than a single diagnostic from a Fiat dealer.

 

[tonyholbury]

Know where you are coming from only problem is Ive paid my money didnt need the software and its only a years licence so by the time I need it I will probably have to pay for another year, plus apart from the code clearing my Maxiscan Pro can do most of the rest.