We've had a warning light about airbags; it appears to be the sensor in the passenger seat (apparently a common fault, as far as I can tell by reading around) according to the garage - and now it's an MOT test failure.
The part alone costs £300!
Any suggestions? Perhaps find a replacement seat from a breaker's yard?
Thanks,
Daniele
Have you had a look on eBay?
There are various used sensors on there, and several ways of defeating the warning, all a lot less than £300!
Chris
The usual cause for these (whatever the car) is a fracture in the wiring caused by the seat being moved back'ard and for'ard, together with rear seat passenger's feat and gumf underneath the seat.
Replacing the wiring usually sorts it.
'Aggressive vacuuming' is another common cause, often by valeters!
Googling suggests it's less likely to be that simple in the case of the Stilo however.
Chris
They said they're sure it's the sensor in the seat, having had a go at the wiring.
Daniele
I saw plenty of sensor "emulators", that pretend that the seat is occupied. Are they legal? Will the car pass the MOT test with one?
I dodn't see any acutal sensors though, but perhaps I am looking for the wrong thing.
Daniele
If the light goes out then it'll pass. It's no great shakes to fit a bypass - it just means the passenger air bag will always fire in the relevant collision rather than depending on someone being in the seat.
Part of the reason for the sensors is to reduce repair costs in an accident but this becomes moot once a car is a few years old, since the car's likely a write off for other reasons. But if it's not then 2nd hand airbags are plentiful and cheap so no loss there either.
Scott
You mean soldering up a new one?
I don't like the idea of simply disabling it altogether.
Daniele
Yes, though I don't want to have to argue that with an overly-punctillious MOT examiner!
Quite true.
Daniele
Yep, the test looks for correct operation of the warning lamps.
There was at least one.
Chris
Solder up the thing with all the resistors. It's a homebrew emulator, so the airbag will fire irregardless of the seat being occupied.
I wouldn't want to disable it, either.
It works too. A colleague at work did it in his lunch hour. A big saving on new.
*ding*
I'm not sure this is the case - I *think* it's back to being advisory only.
It's still in the manual dated April 2013:
Ahhh, here we go.
Remove the warning lamp bulb:
'SRS warning lamp inoperative has been deleted.'
Our 156 has had an airbag fault since I bought it - I've tried an ECU reset, but it looks like I need a new airbag ECU or possibly a new driver's curtain bag. That's probably only just economically viable on a
56 plated car - especially on a 56 plated car that was built in 2002 and is an import... essentially, it's not worth a lot, yet it's still a bloody good car. So I'll just remove the bulb.On Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:11:30 +0100, SteveH panted, in an erotic manner:
It is possible, on some cars, especially certain French ones, using the correct diagnostic gear (or a cheap chinese copy of it), to tell the airbag ECU that a particular airbag causing and issue is not installed. This makes the airbag ECU then ignore that (faulty) airbag, test the other ones that are installed and good, and then switch the airbag light off = one happy MOT tester.
Of course, if you want working airbags, this is no use at all, but it'll get through a MOT.
I'm getting the airbag sorted tomorrow anyway, but there you go. Might be the same with other cars, I've no idea.
On Tue, 04 Jun 2013 22:11:30 +0100, SteveH panted, in an erotic manner:
It is possible, on some cars, especially certain French ones, using the correct diagnostic gear (or a cheap chinese copy of it), to tell the airbag ECU that a particular airbag causing and issue is not installed. This makes the airbag ECU then ignore that (faulty) airbag, test the other ones that are installed and good, and then switch the airbag light off = one happy MOT tester.
Of course, if you want working airbags, this is no use at all, but it'll get through a MOT.
I'm getting the airbag sorted tomorrow anyway, but there you go. Might be the same with other cars, I've no idea.
If you're suggesting removing the lamp, which in our car is all too operative, the problem is that the dashboard panel still says "airbag failure stop engine" and beeps at you.
Daniele
There's a loophole for that, too!
14 If a car shows a "warning message" instead of a "warning lamp" becoming illuminated, would this be a fail?No. Under type approval, safety and environmental systems are required to illuminate a "Malfunction Indicator Lamp" (MIL) to indicate a serious malfunction. These are simplistic and easy for drivers to recognise, understand and act on. Dashboard warning messages are likely to be supplementary and provide additional helpful information as will access to the On Board Diagnostic information to identify faults during the repair process.
So, remove the bulb and live with the message!
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