airbag light is on,

[Priezti]

Hi there, just thought id say hello as this is my first post, had my Ibiza for a year now, been a great car apart from when it breaks (nothing serious),

anyway just to let you all know I'm an auto-electrician (security/audio/etc) as well as knowledge in mechanics + bodywork, so any questions feel free to pm.

The next one is that my airbag light is on, been on diagnostics and its stating passenger seat ignitor is gone, so in need of a seat so if any one knows anyone or has one for an ibiza sport 02> (grey/red trim) will post pic if needed, and has anyone had this before?

cheers

Lee

[RUM4MO]

I'd be surprised if diagnostic tools can work out if its the ignitor or its cabling that had "gone". I thought most of these problems came from broken wires or plug/socket problems due to the seat being regularly moved. Have you checked out the external "under seat" wiring? It at times like these it would be handy to know the correct resistor value that would keep the car's self diagnostics system happy.

[Nath.]

As said, I reckon it will be a wiring fault, with yours skills I'm surprised you didn't get it fixed already.

As an auto electrician you will know that you only need a momentary bad connection for the logic to display a fault.

[Priezti]

in fairness the diagnostics guy, checked everything over for me, so the one thing i could do with checking my self is the wiring as you stated.

Am i correct in thinking (and from reading another post) that if the wiring has been shorted it wipes out the bag module as well as seat though?and does anyone know the main point where the wiring gets trapped? any common places? (passenger side)

thanks for the replies

[Nath.]

Originally Posted by Priezti

the one thing i could do with checking my self is the wiring as you stated.

In your line of work this shouldn't be a problem.

Reseting the fault is the bit that you need vag-com for.

[Priezti]

so does anyone know if it blows modules when the wires short?

I would have thought there is a protection curcuit but anyway.

is everyone getting vag-com from ebay? and will it clear the air bag faults.

[Nath.]

Vag-Com comes from the ross tech website, it costs about 200 quid but there is a free version that does basic stuff if you buy a 15 quid cable from ebay (not a usb one)

Do a search on the vag-com section and all will become clear

As for a short blowing the ECU, I have never heard of this before. As with modern PLC's there should be protection against this built in.

[Priezti]

Originally Posted by nathwarr

Vag-Com comes from the ross tech website, it costs about 200 quid but there is a free version that does basic stuff if you buy a 15 quid cable from ebay (not a usb one)

Do a search on the vag-com section and all will become clear

As for a short blowing the ECU, I have never heard of this before. As with modern PLC's there should be protection against this built in.

whats wrong with the usb one?

[RUM4MO]

I'm speculating a bit here, but I would think that when the airbag controller receives a crash signal and deploys the bags, then that airbag controller is "spent" - and will not allow crash data to be cleared from its memory by scan tools. If, on the other hand, the O/P side of the SRS gets a wiring problem, then no crash data will have been logged and as said we would hope that these controllers are designed to stand that treatment and survive.

As for VAG-COM, if you need it why not just buy a reg'd copy and get full functionality - there are also lots of UK based VAG-COM retailers, www.ilexa.co.uk and www.gendan.co.uk for instance.

[MTIbiza]

My Airbag light came on.

According to the garage it was a communication error which they cleared with Vag-com.

The error occurred when the battery was disconnected for topping up the power steering fluid.

Mike

[Nath.]

Originally Posted by Priezti

whats wrong with the usb one?

because the free versions of vag-com are the older versions that are not USB compatible.

[Priezti]

ok thanks for the info guys ill keep you posted on the findings

[Priezti]

well, done some digging and ive found a severed wire in the seat where it folds forward, ive soldered it back up until i find the proper VAG crimp connections (somewhere in my toolbox) just need to wait for my vag-com cable to be delivered

[g8rvn]

I know that you have found the fault now but for future reference for anybody, safety critical stuff like ABS and Airbag ecu's can create fault codes if the battery voltage drops below a certain level with the ignition on etc as it all gets confused and think they arent connected as some ecu's will still communicate and some wont at different voltages.
Personally, before I do anything, i'll try and clear the codes first in case its just an error somewhere, if it is still there after, then more stuff obviously needs to be done.

[Priezti]

Originally Posted by g8rvn

I know that you have found the fault now but for future reference for anybody, safety critical stuff like ABS and Airbag ecu's can create fault codes if the battery voltage drops below a certain level with the ignition on etc as it all gets confused and think they arent connected as some ecu's will still communicate and some wont at different voltages.
Personally, before I do anything, i'll try and clear the codes first in case its just an error somewhere, if it is still there after, then more stuff obviously needs to be done.

the PAS light can also come on in the same conditions

[Priezti]

Fixed

the vag-com usb cable off ebay worked perfectly, will invest in the offical one when more funds are available

[wazb]

my airbag light is also on, so if i buy one these cables from ebay i think its £14, i can just plug it in and erase the error code? is it hard to use? also is this reccomended? as if there is an actual problem with my airbags and im just clearing the error dont want to stop them working.

[beezanick]

Its easy to use, and the EBay cables do work fine. You can reset fault codes easily. You can get the USB cables to work with the free version of vag-com, but they are realy serial connection which plugs into the USB port. This can cause problems when setting it up, but will work with perserverance. Have a look at the vag-com section, plenty of info on there.