Technical Airbag System Failure!

[anthemmaster]

Hi guys been having an intermittent fault with my Abarth of late. I did some looking on the forum but i seem to be having the opposite of what other people are.
Basicly when i start my car get an Airbag warning, then about 40 seconds later a full on "Airbag System Failure" stop car immidiatley!!
This goes off after about 3 mins, but only if someone is sitting in the passenger seat. as soon as they get out i get a warning again.
The posts i found seem to be warning when people sit on the seat.
I had a look at the wires underneath and all seem good, however i have recently took out the front baby seat.
Any ideas or advice please?
Thank You Anthemmaster

 

[Davren]

Probably damaged the Occupant Classification Sensor that's built into the seat cushion by having the baby seat on it. There was a similar thread on here a while ago for the same problem. Will need a new OCS or emulator.

Dave.

 

[anthemmaster]

Cheers for the quick reply Dave, but having looked at most of the Aibag Failure threads the OCS failure seems to happen when someone sits in the car.
On mine as soon as someone sits in the passenger seat all warnings go off.
I checked the connectors underneath and all looks fine.
Also is the "Pressure Sensor" i keep reading about in posts the same thing as the OCS mat?
Alan

 

[Morty Mort]

I had a look at the wires underneath and all seem good, however i have recently took out the front baby seat.
Any ideas or advice please?
Thank You Anthemmaster

This is what wrecked my OCS sensor (mat). Had to get a new one, which solved the problem. I also had an OCS simulator in between, and shut off the airbag at the A pillar, as the mat was destroyed anyway. My babyseat had two major loadpoints, and as I usually used full force when fastening the seat I crushed the mat. The failure occuread after I removed the seat...

You have a grey connector block under the seat, right?

M.

 

[Davren]

Cheers for the quick reply Dave, but having looked at most of the Aibag Failure threads the OCS failure seems to happen when someone sits in the car.
On mine as soon as someone sits in the passenger seat all warnings go off.
I checked the connectors underneath and all looks fine.
Also is the "Pressure Sensor" i keep reading about in posts the same thing as the OCS mat?
Alan

Perhaps having the weight of someone on the seat connects the broken parts of the OCS back together temporarily. The airbag warning light is self extinguishing once the fault is fixed, even if only temporarily.

Pressure sensor is the same as OCS.

This is what wrecked my OCS sensor (mat).M.

I knew I'd read it somewhere on here before.

Dave.

 

[anthemmaster]

Cheers for the replies, was hoping the sensor was a diffrent(and cheaper)thing than the OCS mat.
Had to do some work yesterday so put me laptop bag on the passenger seat and it turned off the warning.
Funny thing is, since the laptop bag turned off the warning it hasnt come back, even with nothing on the seat!!!
Had this car 4 years now and it still makes me laugh with it's little quirks.
Love it when ya driving along and hear"beep beep beep" and by the time you look at ya dash its gone and you dont know what it was beeping at,lol.
The best one is when your number plate bulb fails it beeps to high heaven, but wont tell you when a headlights out!! Well mine dont anyway.
Alan

 

[Davren]

It's not neccessary to have headlamp bulb failure warning, it's assumed you can see when the bulb is gone because of lack of light shining on the road.

Dave

 

[anthemmaster]

Lol Dave, i didnt think of that, far to obvious.
Just hope it stays off and i dont have to get a new OCS or pressure sensor(whichever people wish to call it).
Thanks again for help
Alan

 

[Morty Mort]

Lol Dave, i didnt think of that, far to obvious.
Just hope it stays off and i dont have to get a new OCS or pressure sensor(whichever people wish to call it).
Thanks again for help
Alan

You will have a cloth tag on the side of the cushion, saying "OCS". So I'd call it that.

 

[anthemmaster]

Thanks Morty, just checked and saw the big OCS tag on me seat,lol.
Was wondering if its just Fiat that use this system or do other cars have similar problems. If its not just fiat then surely the babyseat manufacturers should give you some kind of warning about it wrecking your Airbag system. Must admit before this i'd never heared of it before.
Alan

 

[Morty Mort]

It is a common system. My boss' BMW just had the OCS mat replaced with similiar errors. And believe me, the replacement part at FIAT is a lot cheaper than the BMW part - and they are propably made by the same manufacturer.

Baby seats have different designs, but I know for sure with the next kid (I have a feeling there are more to come) I will "design" a special jigsawed piece of plywood to go inbetween.

It's made in France by the way...

 

[anthemmaster]

Hello again, i know this is an old post but only just got round to actually fixing the problem.
About 2 weeks ago the airbag warning came on but this time it stayed on.
Decided to take it to Fiat but they wanted 85 quid just to put it on the machine!!!!
Found a specialist called allitalia in Wrexham(http://www.italia.org.uk/) who charged £30 plus vat.
When he tested the car straight away the drivers side curtain airbag came up as the faulty one, to my suprise not the passenger ocs.
So now i knew at least which airbag was playin up. Looked through some of the posts on here and this thread https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo/206144-stilo-airbag-failure-warning.html
There was a post by my now new hero Deckchair5, saying where the connectors are, i'd already done the seat one so nxt stop was the one in the boot. Un-plugged it and cleaned it then replace.... Low & behold the warnings gone!!
Drove it round for a while, got me mrs in and out of the passenger seat and all is well so far.
Fingers crossed thats it, Just thought i'd let you know what worked for me. Thanks again for all help and contributions, Alan m

 

[Yellow Peril]

Thanks for letting us all know. It's always good to hear a success story.

 

[AW139]

Hi All
I have the 3 dr stilo 2002..in d same boat as every1 ..my car had the red airbag light taken off when taken to a garage and replaced airbag squib but sadly it back on again I just want it off for the NCT here in IRL .I dnt care if it cums back aslong as my cert is valid ..

 

[Bulin]

Just got me car fixed today with the passenger car seat sensor.
I was under warranty but he fixed it with a gadget that cost 60 euro he paid for it.
But i wanna know is this part legal for a car garage to fit em to cars the thing that tricks the car.
oh yea works fine and listen to people when they say about the sensor that's main cause of airbag failure

 

[jaakkoilkka]

Airbag system failure showed itself first time 2 days ago... next morning it went away after half minute, this afternoon it was on again... Damn. With 6 airbags, fault could be nearly anywhere. Annoying. It says "stop engine" but that hardly is important unless i plan to hit something. I guess i will wait few weeks and look if warmer weather helps, if not, then professional help must be the easiest way.