Air Bag Light.
 

Air bag light on this morning,first time in the car since my mate took it for M.O.T. last week. So i think plug under seat may be the problem has he would have moved the seat to drive it. But could it be anything else.:shrug:

Nine times out of ten it's the connection under the driving seat. Twist 90 degrees anti-clockwise to remove from seat frame fixing. Pull apart. Apply contact cleaner or WD40. Push in and out a few times and usually its sorted. Recommendation is to remove a battery lead to avoid airbag igniting.:shrug: I find that front seat needs to be as far forward and high up as poss and reach in under via back door.

There are two types of underseat plugs - early type (up to maybe 2001/2) is bigger and the metal connectors prone to seat foam outgassing causing tarnishing/corrosion. Later type is smaller and MGR did something to stabilise the foam and I think the connectors were gold plated (really). By all means do a light clean/lubricate on the plug connectors but check out MGR Technical Bulletin TB0133 iss2 (27/08/2004). The biggest issue is the cable routing combined with seat movement/adjustment putting a slight strain on the connectors (MGR called it fretting) which go to high resistance and the dreaded light comes on.
I re-routed per TB and it's never given a problem since. A cable tie across the male/female plugs is also a quick fix to prevent any small mutual movement.

Whatever you do don’t cut them and solder wires together as some have done because I read somewhere there’s something in the connectors to stop electrical spikes preventing the airbags deploying by accident

I'd like to know more about those connectors. Meanwhile, protocol is to disconnect the battery for a half hour before fiddling with the airbag circuit. No accidental deployment then.

Been looking for air bag light problem.
Taken some photos,can anyone point out to what and where the plug is.
The only unconnected plug i can see is in 1st photo. Thanks
Must add some changes were made to connectors about a year ago,changing seats to mk1 from mk2. But light problem only happened last week.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7926/...7ca06341_c.jpgP1010420 by john barry, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7893/...1b5f7765_c.jpgP1010418 by john barry, on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7913/...9ecd73a4_c.jpgP1010415 by john barry, on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7902/...6c9f4370_c.jpgP1010414 by john barry, on Flickr

Sheathed cable and yellow plug that is fixed to seat. Take usual precautions of disconnecting battery etc., then grab a hold of the plug and its mounting to seat and twist, anti-clockwise 90 degrees. The plug and its mounting will release up and off the seat base. The plug and connector can then be nipped and pulled apart, then treated with contact cleaner/wd40 or whatever, pushed in and out a few times to clean the contact surfaces and refitted, hopefully curing the problem (until the next time!).

The airbag is the thick yellow cable leading to a yellow connector above the vacant connector in the first pic. Don't ignore the seat belt pre-tensioner (thick blue cable) connectors. A problem with them can bring up the light as well. Remember, same connectors are under the passenger seat.

Is this true, I've got my MOT booked for next week and I have had an air bag fault each year but I have thumped the seat which has kept it off during the test.
This year I decided to do something about it by soldering some wires to bye pass the plugs, I'm worried now, can anyone advise?

To me this magic connector thing is in the same category as the sky hook and prop wash soap. I'm happy to be proven wrong and learn something, though.

Cheers,
Glenn