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Fuse 42 - air bag deactivation

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  • Fuse 42 - air bag deactivation

    Hi all,

    I believe this topic has come up in the past, many moons ago, however discussion was brief at the time.

    Anyway, I'm looking for a way to deactivate the air bag on passengers side.

    If that fails, both airbags.

    Ideal situation is to deactivate only the passengers side, and be able to turn it back on again.

    If you pull the fuse #42 (seems to be same fuse number for Airbag in the 5 series of same vintage interestingly), does that disable all airbags? Then putting fuse back in again turns them back on?

    Last time I pulled fuses in a car and stuck new ones in was in the 90s on my old 1986 Honda Civic (I saw one in London the other day - Honda microwave, brilliant car!). Anyway, I digress. Fuse technology may have moved on a bit since 1986.

    I've had the common fault with the passenger seat mat whereby the air bag light comes on and can only be reset by a clever diy'er or my indy mechanic.

    So wonder if a similar fault would present itself in the airbag system if you pulled said fuse.

    Reason being I would like to take my kid out in her car seat on the very odd occassion. Slightly depressing thought to have to wait until she and the little fellow that follows her round the house are 12 before they can come for a ride in the "fancy blue car".

    I've read online there are a few fixes out there - none I'd try myself but would pay to have the garage do the work if I thought it could be done.

  • #2
    If the airbag light is on I believe they are both deactivated anyway so crack on!

    Build thread: https://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19347

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    • #3
      Originally posted by mnbrennan View Post
      If the airbag light is on I believe they are both deactivated anyway so crack on!
      Correct. Any fault that causes airbag light to come on disables the whole system.
      1998 ///M Coupe

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      • #4
        That was my understanding too.

        Issue is I've had the fault reset - there are ways of triggering the fault I'm told. Throwing a book on the passenger seat seems to work.

        If I cannot re-generate the airbag fault, would simply removing the fuse 42 (airbag in fuse diagram) deactivate the airbags? I am assuming it would?

        Then simply putting back in again all would be ok (i.e. when I'm the only person in the car)? - i.e. airbag reactivated as fuse is replaced?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Bruski_11 View Post
          That was my understanding too.

          Issue is I've had the fault reset - there are ways of triggering the fault I'm told. Throwing a book on the passenger seat seems to work.

          If I cannot re-generate the airbag fault, would simply removing the fuse 42 (airbag in fuse diagram) deactivate the airbags? I am assuming it would?

          Then simply putting back in again all would be ok (i.e. when I'm the only person in the car)? - i.e. airbag reactivated as fuse is replaced?
          Nope. Once you have an airbag light the only way to reset it is with a tool.
          1998 ///M Coupe

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          • #6
            Why would you disconnect the airbag?

            Airbags are fine for children, it's only rear facing child seats, usually infants under 12 months old, that need the airbag turning off. This is because the airbag can hit the back of a child seat, where babies head would be, sending seat & baby flying.

            If your child is forward facing sat upright in the seat with the seatbelt on the airbag is going to cushion any impact just like it would for an adult.


            If you do have a rear facing infant seat the only way to guarantee the airbag is disconnected is to unplug it, removing fuses etc isn't 100% going to stop the airbag, unless you have a wiring diagram to confirm you have isolated every live input to the airbag control unit.

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            • #7
              not rear facing no.
              and yes, I was afraid that a simple fuse removal would be just that, too simple and would probably lead to a fault that would need to be reset.
              thanks for replies.
              last time I was at the indy garage he had the wiring for 3 x e46 m3 race cars laid out on the floor. Impressive. Red wire, blue wire...errrr.

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