Cheap airbag light fix - brought to you by Bodgit & Scarper
 

Airbag light on? Why waste time and money messing about with under seat connectors and side impact sensors when you can have a permanent fix in minutes and for free?




Airbag light on....


https://i.postimg.cc/3RvX6sdG/20181007_133257.jpg





Out with the IPK, and a quick squirt with a tube of black, sticky, mastic type gloop...


https://i.postimg.cc/76GLf2NM/20181007_130337.jpg







Low and behold, airbag problem "fixed"...


https://i.postimg.cc/L66qZd2V/20181007_124717.jpg







Total cost? Half an hour, a blob of black sealant and your immortal soul...

I'm currently reverse engineering this "fix" on my 1999 V6. With the MOT changes this year the car won't pass it's next MOT like that.


Many thanks to Trikey who kindly T4'd the car a couple of weeks ago, and tipped me off to some airbag errors that I'd been blissfully unaware of thanks to the above handiwork. :bowdown:



Lesson learned - always make sure the airbag light comes on first and then goes out when buying a car!



So I've scraped out the gloop, reassembled the IPK, and now have a nice shiny airbag light. The T4 pointed to side airbag sensors as the culprit, so I just whipped out the passenger side one.


It looks like new to me, no sign of water damage anywhere (the car has a sunroof), but I guess looks can be deceiving....


https://i.postimg.cc/sDkrCS6Z/20181010_102909.jpg




So, if anyone has a spare side impact sensor that looks like that kicking around then please drop me a PM!

I had a similar issue with mine, although (luckily!) someone had just painted over the plastic.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...psh6exqdsp.jpg

Mine was also a crash sensor, easy fix!

Even better! :D


I hope that's the self test thingy, otherwise that's not what you want to see on your dash when travelling at 50 miles an hour ;)

It had been done to mine as well previously with a piece of sticky tape over it - can see the residue. Luckily it had been rectified by the chap I bought it off and I did check the light worked correctly when I bought it.

Interestingly I found a photo of my car on Facebook for sale a while back with a previous owner and black sticky tape can be seen...

I have seen this done before but worse in my view was a piece of circuitry wired into the light so it illuminated for 3 or 4 seconds once the ignition was put on :eek:.

I found it because I put a code reader on the said car and it showed up this fault together with several others that had been bodged.

With the regs as they are now anybody buying a used car even from a dealer should plug a code reader in and see what is potentially wrong with your potential purchase. Even pending codes could show up potential future expense.

The problem is the parts to fix some of these faults on some makes and models makes me think this kind of bodging will become more common place and could be a reason that reading codes could become part of the MOT test.

Well, I've replaced the passenger side sensor with one from eBay and... the airbag light is still on.

Sigh.

Will start stripping out the driver's side.

If anyone has a known good sensor knocking about then please drop me a PM.

My car had the passenger bag unplugged and a resistor bridging the incoming plug....

hope it gets sorted
 

I'm so glad I bought a cheap netbook and downloaded toaf and the srs tool for the mk2 so I don't get stung like this.

First thing I do is ask the seller if I can plug in my code reader if they say no I just walk away.

When the airbag warning light pops on, the airbags and seat belt pretensioner systems on the 'faulty' side are disabled. So, simply painting over the bulb doesn't seem a very wise thing to do.


TC

Unless mistaken there are 14 safety features that if faulty will light up the airbag fault icon.. each has a connector, some famous for connection problems, but all can be potential.

So you bought a impact sensor off eBay, and despite what the seller says, you know it is not a faulty one, yeh right, in a pigs ear. So you sell the one you took of as a "good one" someone buys it, fits it, still airbag fault, so they sell their faulty one as "good" LOL. So which do you trust, T4 or some ebay seller, who may genuinely thinks it works, but it does not light up when plugged in.

Worth noting
 

It is also worth noting IIRC that if an MOT tester switches on your ignition and the airbag light does not come on to self test (as it does everytime the ignition goes on- it comes on for a few seconds then goes out if OK) it will fail its MOT. I think the light failing to light up used to be an advisory but is now a fail?

The airbags are a vital part of the safety system that protects you in the event of a crash. It should never be by passed.

This of course is just my own opinion but a strongly held view

Chris

my light is on and where is this green sensor to check

what are the componets that could bring the light on?

Thread revival
An update to this crazy bodge is it will fail the MOT.
NO self test illumination = fail.

It's quicker to fix airbag faults than taking the IPK out anyway.:duh:

Why would anyone want less safety protection and if someone has paid to have such a mod or they've done it to sell a car on to an unsuspecting new owner then shame on them.

Behind the fitted carpet on the O/S and N/S chassis pan upturn (that's the sill on the inside of the car) almost directly below the 'B' pillar.

I think you need to read the original post properly Jules. I was undoing the bodge, not doing it myself, and I mentioned the fact it would fail an MOT.

Hi Gary.
What was your solution for the members whom may come across the same problem, was it the sensor or the wiring under the seats?

I once had a car with the ‘no airbag light’ issue, someone had removed the ipk, dismantled it and carefully cut and fitted pieces of cork into the holes where the led’s sit.

It probably took longer to do that that to repair the underseat connectors that were causing the fault.

Sorry Gazcon it wasn't aimed at you but was a general warning to all not to bodge SRS systems !

We've cured 3 similar bodge cases this last 2 months to get cars through MOT correctly.

On my advice one recent new owner to the Marque approached the dealer he bought his 75 from and presented him with our bill for 2 side impact sensors and IPK repair and drying carpets.

The dealer tried to imply he didn't know anything about the coverup even though it was his garage who MOT'd it prior to the sale a few days before the purchase.

These people should be banned from selling cars and the MOT station stripped of their test status where a crucial safety feature has been bypassed.

Wrong, not coming on at all is a "Minor" error, it is stays on then it is a "Major"

Still a fail though Phil according to both local testers here.

Generally if something is fitted it must work, even headlamp washers are a fail if faulty

No No No, it is NOT a fail, it is a "MINOR ERROR" and again NO, headlamp washers are not even a testable item on cars prior to 1st Sept 2009 so that exempts ALL Rover 75 and ZT's.

The old fallacy of if it is fitted it must work is just not true.

That makes no sense re SRS.

If light doesn't come on or stays on.......either way SRS is faulty and airbags won't deploy.

Early SRS systems never had a test routine and would only light up if a fault was present so how can you fail it for not lighting up when it was never designed that way?

No one said the MOT test makes sense, e.g. we HAVE to pass & advise tyres that would get you a fine and points if the police stopped you.

Remember a MOT test is carried out using MINIMUM standards and not common sense.

True, there are plenty of parts of MOT / DVSA rules that seem to make little sense, but we have to operate within th rules applied by such body.

There have been multiple parts of the rules changed to accommodate the modern vehicles which make it easier for modern cars to pass with rules that exists allowing previous failures to become a pass. This includes headlamp cleaning devices - notably for modern Audi and Mercedes.
Many fitted with xenon / led light sources. Their front bumpers show mouldings where the jet would usually pop out to deliver liquid, but in-fact, they are false caps moulded into the bumper and do not do anything at all. They are false, the bumper was removed on many fails both my colleague and I recorded, with the bumper removed, there is nothing fitted behind it to represent any cleaning device.
The manual was repeatedly checked, and if you read and curve your perceptions slightly, you will see that they allow some compromising of the rule. This is wrong really, but the modern age seems to allow manipulation everywhere.
Just one example of how we have to work with what we have.
The text - last time I checked it pointed out the rule, and suffixed with "If fitted" or "Where fitted"

Well we have higher standards than that and always submit our customers 75's with a fully functioning SRS systems and decent tyres.

Piece of mind all round.

Spot on and as it should be :)

I generally have to work to 2 different standard levels, the much higher servicing level where components get replaced if nearing end of life or showing signs of wear and the MOT standard of "is it hanging off or broken?" - nope then its a pass and advice. You just know 90% of the time anything that is not a fail will not get done by the owner.

BTW my failure rate over the last 3 months is 40%, national average is 27%

As I said originally in this post anyone buying a car these days should plug a code reader in and see what is happening.

A dealer I know will always put a car ''in the workshop'' to check the codes before he makes an offer. Over the years he has found numerous bodges some that would have cost a lot of money to fix if he had not scanned the car first. He was telling me of one recently that had the Catalysts had been knocked out and it was only the live data that showed what was wrong, the new catalysts for this BMW were nearly £2k :eek:. When he put the car up on the ramp it was obvious the cats had been removed and refitted recently.

Report them to vosa with your findings. These cowboys need shutting down.

I always thought I was lucky as my air bag light never came on. Then I read this and realised it never does come on, ever. So today I had a look and this is what I found:

https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...239c998788.jpg

This cluster came out of a scrap car as I originally had the basic cluster (no computer).

I still have my original cluster with a full complement of warning lights. Can I swop the lights over?

Yes if you are good with soldering iron and know about surface mount techniques ;)

I've removed an led from the old cluster using a soldering iron and tweezers (and melted a lot of the plastic in the process). In order not to melt any more plastic I need to dismantle the unit further. However what is the method for removing the needles and this is preventing me from prizing the unit apart.

They just pull off with fingers but put a forked piece of old credit card underneath needles 1st to protect the inlay

Thanks,

The needles came off very easily in the end as they must have been previously tampered with. I still could not get the unit apart, so have decided to stop and re-assemble before I break something.

I'll have a re-think about what to do in the meantime.

Well, I must have spoken too soon. Its all back together in the car now, but I have somehow managed to break the petrol and temperature gauges, which no longer move.

Looks as though I will be treating myself to a replacement IPK. Can anyone point me in the direction of where I might get one coded to my car?

Fortunately I can set the computer to view the range function and estimate how much petrol I have.