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  • Air bag problems

    Hi all

    Unfortunately my car has failed the MOT on the airbag light and my local garage can't clear it.

    I've inly just replaced both harnesses under the seats as I thought that would have been the cause for the light on in the first place? Unfortunately not.

    They have picked up a fault in the passenger airbag so they have tried swapping the airbags around but the fault doesn't clear so it's not the bag itself.

    I spoke to the technician this evening and he think there is going to be a loom issue he went away and was going to spend an hour tonight checking it but I've just had a call saying they have not diagnosed it yet? They will look further Monday now.

    Does anyone have any ideas please as I'm concerned I'm getting charged per hours for this diagnosis and I know the answer is probably in our forum?

    Many thanks Ash

  • #2
    I have been told many problems are down to bad connections / dry joints and after spraying a good quality electrical spray on my seat and steering airbag connectors managed to get rid of my airbag faults, may be worth a try

    http://www.z3mcoupe.com/forum/showpo...&postcount=551

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    • #3
      Thanks Dave I will mention this to the garage tomorrow.

      The guy did mention a high resistance so a dirty contact could be the cause. At least I bloody hope it is??

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      • #4
        My problems continue! I've now taken my car to a very well know auto electrician as the garage where I took it didn't fill me with confidence and at £67 per hour I didn't want to waste anymore money.

        Good news within an hour it has been diagnosed as the impact sensor under the passenger seat. God knows what BMW will want for it but it's got to be done.

        Bad news the matting under the passenger carpet is wet! Drivers side not checked yet! Thankfully he said there is no signs at all of rust. Looks like I will now need to remove all the carpets once MOT'd.

        Are there any common issue for water ingress?

        The car has been parked up for a couple of years and for 6 months of that it was exposed to the elements. All the water is under the carpet the carpet itself appears dry and there is no smell of damp.

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        • #5
          I had exactly the same when I first bought mine in 2009. My Indy read the codes and identified it as the unit in 5 mins, so I was lucky on that front.

          I bought a secondhand module from either Fab or Quarry and it has been fine since. Easy enough to fit, but you do have to remove the seat.

          My floor was also wet, which had caused the unit to fail.....it was leaking through the door seal at the bottom. A roll of butyl tape fixed it
          S50 Black, H&R Arbs/ Springs, B8s, Larini Exhaust

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          • #6
            Hi Maph thanks for your reply

            What sort of job is it to remove all the carpets? I guess it's a case of removing the centre console and seats? I wanna get it dried out properly.

            Can you expand on your door seal fix? And How did you identify it was the door seal?

            Thanks Ash

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            • #7
              Hi Ash,

              I did not remove the carpets. I used a sponge/ kitchen roll to get as much out as I could and then I think I used a hairdryer. I can also vaguely remember running around with the heater on full and sunroof open to dry it out. If you get most of it out, once you stop water getting in it will dry out pretty quickly.

              To identify the leak I carefully poured water down the outside of the door and watched where it came out. I could see some water coming out between the bottom of the door card and the door.

              On mine the plastic barrier behind the door card had come away in a couple of areas and just needed some butyl tape to stick it down again.

              Once you switch the module over (just unplug the old and plug in the new) from memory, I think you may need the airbag light reset again.

              Hope that helps.
              S50 Black, H&R Arbs/ Springs, B8s, Larini Exhaust

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              • #8
                I think its a big job to remove the front carpet as it involves removing the heater assembly

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                • #9
                  Hi,

                  Completely removing the carpets is a big job as the driver's side and passanger's side front and rear carperts are each "one unit". In other words the left and right side of these carperts are joined together.

                  See here : http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/Z3...loor_covering/

                  But luckily if you lift of the seat, you can easily bend the front and back carpet to expose most of the floor.

                  Here is a pic of my car where I did some floor maintenance to the drivers side floor: https://v2tre.wordpress.com/2015/11/...kuskin-lattia/

                  The passanger side is basically the same.

                  You can see the side impact sensor in the middle of the picture as the yellow labeled component attached to the side of the stiffening beam.
                  The older I get, the faster I was ...
                  BMW HP2 Sport
                  ex- BMW Z3 M Coupe - Cosmosschwartz Metallic

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                  • #10
                    Thank you very much everyone this has been most helpful.

                    Will hopefully get the car back soon so I can get this car dried out ASAP

                    Thanks Ash

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                    • #11
                      The passenger airbag sensor was a common problem on my old E46. I bought a plug in device on ebay - around a fiver - which left the car sensing there was a passenger present all the time. The light stays off. All this means is that if you have a crash with only the driver in the car, the passenger airbag goes off as well - big deal. If it's the same problem, it's a very easy fix.

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                      • #12
                        Car is back with a MOT current sitting on the drive with carpets up and a fan heater drying the carpets out.

                        Had lots of rain today and also found the leak and it was coming through the door membrane so have some butyl tape on order to fix

                        Even got my money back for the miss diagnosis on the air bag fault at the first garage.

                        Happy day days, by Sunday I'll be back in the road after 2 years! Shame the weather is bad and there is salt on the roads!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ashley View Post
                          Car is back with a MOT current sitting on the drive with carpets up and a fan heater drying the carpets out.

                          Had lots of rain today and also found the leak and it was coming through the door membrane so have some butyl tape on order to fix

                          Even got my money back for the miss diagnosis on the air bag fault at the first garage.

                          Happy day days, by Sunday I'll be back in the road after 2 years! Shame the weather is bad and there is salt on the roads!

                          Glad you got it sorted Ashley

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