Resetting an airbag warning light (Audi A3)

Decent independent, if you can find one, or a mobile auto electrician if there is one in your area.

BTW, usual advice for this sort of thing is to disconnect the battery before starting.

Chris

Not sure that would have helped. The essential thing *not* to do apparently is to turn on the ignition whilst the passenger side airbag switch is unplugged unless you've turned it off first. As I was trying to get the climatronic fan working, I had to have the battery connected for testing whilst I had things in pieces.

I'll try our local independent chap if I can't reset it otherwise but I was wondering if there were any "tricks of the trade" involving bent paper clips poked in somewhere. I'm sure I've read about tricks like this for some cars.

Tim

Cheaper would be go to

uk-mkivs, or one of the other many VAG forums and find someone with VCDS who will reset it for either nothing, or a beer. There's usually a list of owners who will.

Hell, if you're anywhere near the West Mids, I'll do it :-)

The climatronic fan? If it's like my Leon, it just drops out form below, no need to get the glovebox out. It's the same fan unit, I think, and a common failure. Mine failed last year, on an 06 car, so yours is due :-)

You can squeeze a bit of life out of them by lubricating the bearings, usually.

[...]

Not on anything from this century!

;-)

Chris

Thanks but SW Scotland alas.

Tim

Someone will be near you. Briskoda is usually friendly.

Hi chris, im having the same problem 9 my 99 a3. It won't pass it's mot with it on and audi want silly money to sort it. I know this thread is really old but I love in the west miss and would certainly give you more than a pint if you can fix it. Rich

Take the bulb out, it will then pass the MoT (daft as that is)

No, to pass the MOT it has to follow the correct ignition on sequence. No light is as much a fail as a permanently lit light. Of course you can always wire the lamp to a suitable circuit that emulates the correct sequence.

Incorrect.

No airbag light is, at worst, an advisory. Although it wasn't even that at my local MOT centre.

I had a car pass as I described earlier this year, unless the regs have changed of course that will still be the case.

OK I was possibly wrong, but it was certainly going to be part of the test and may even have been for a short while prior to 20th March 2013, then it got removed. The notice announcing this (SN 01/2013) is amongst a few that are missing from the VOSA site and the gov.uk site that replaced it.

and also

Fortunately someone took a backup.

Additional Test Changes From 20 March 2013 Section 5.4,RFR 2 SRS warning lamp inoperative has been deleted.

Having read some of the convoluted rules & regs that have appeared in the last few years, I do wonder if there's an MoT man alive who can remember them all /and/ apply them all correctly.

The mot blokes I use really do make the effort to get it correct and try to keep me up to date on the most relevant stuff, a very recent for instance: one that amused everyone, cracks in windscreens are no longer a failure IF they are not directly in the drivers view, consideration should be given to the height of the person presenting the vehicle !!!!! So you could get a really short bloke take in a vehicle for someone else who is 6 foot 6 and it might pass despite the crack being in front of the regular driver and of course you could get a failure if the crack was at the lower bit of screen yet didn't effect the usual driver. Some rules are plain potty.

What does VCDS say is wrong with it?

Hi Chris, Can you do mine :) ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com)

I know this is an old post, but I had exactly this problem.

Ben Cross Motor in Carlisle reset it for 20 quid. May be useful to someone else who is in the cold north!

Hi Chris, it's been long time since you wrote that but I having a similar p roblem and was wondering if you would be able to help me. I have Audi A3 8P in my house in Coventry which isn't insured currently so I am unable to dr ive, however it has the airbag and engine management light on and I am real ly looking for individual help with VCDS to remove the signs as the garage gave me stupid quote to fix it.

Regards