Airbag Warning Light

[stevetyler]

Afternoon,

I have a 2005 XK8 and the airbag warning light is permanently on (sort of light orange light, not red). My local village garage could not seem to get to the airbag system on the car using their box of electronics - any clues or pointers from anyone as to what this might be?
Cheers,
Steve

[J44EAG]

Steve,

Did your garage obtain any air bag fault codes at all?

Mike K

[stevetyler]

Hi Mike - no codes. They couldn't seem to access the airbag system at all which did make me think maybe it was something to do with fuses or something?

I'm considering part/x for an F-Type so may just wait until then - I'm sure whichever dealer I end up with could sort this quite quickly.

Steve.

[J44EAG]

Dealer level diagnostic programs ie IDS and SDD will certainly see the air bag program on your car.

Some of the none professional kit is also able to interrogate the air bag system with success. The iCarsoft 930i which I use has that facility. In favcy it told me on one occasion that there was a pre-tensioner issue and sure enough there was. Just one wire out of the seat belt tensioner where you plug the seat belt in.

Not sure though about the Android, ELM327 blue-tooth chip and Torque Pro app combo which is cheaply and readily available.

An 06 car is likely to be SDD based. If the garage only had IDS diagnostic gear, it could well be they had difficulty with interrogation. Mike H will perhaps know more than I do in that respect.

Mike K

[FrankC]

I would bet money on it being one of the connections on or in the drivers seat. Quite a common problem.

To save you taking things apart initially if you look under the drivers seat you will see two yellow connections. May be a little awkward to get to. However I used to feel under the seat and wiggle them and sometimes the light would go out. Do not disconnect and re-connect without disconnecting the battery for about half an hour, ensuring first that you have your radio code. If that works great! If it doesn't and you want to try the next step you will need to remove the seat from the car and lift up the leather cover on the back of the seat.

Seat removal is easy, but a little heavy, simply one bolt at each corner and two wire connections underneath, remember what I said about the battery though.

'Rev Sam' does a very good video on Youtube on how to lift up the leather cover. Just look for his 'headrest repair' video. He did his in the car I strongly recommend taking the seat out to do it. This is a link on my 'story' for rev Sams video on how to lift leather cover. Please CLICK HERE

Once out its a simple case of disconnecting each and every connection in the back of the seat, easy push/pull job. Spraying inside the connections and at each end with electrical cleaner. Couple of quid at Halfrauds. Pushing them back together again and ensuring nothing is pulling on the wires.

Hope this helps.

[J44EAG]

Exactly the issue I had on my old V8 S-type. One little displaced cable caused mayhem.

Mike K

[stevetyler]

Great stuff, many thanks - I'll have a look under the seat and wiggle some wires.....

[FrankC]

Cheaper than buying another car.

[JimboV8]

Count the flashes of the light, this will give you a code and then an area in which to look for your fault. Example, two flashes, short pause, two flashes then long pause and then repeated will give a flasher code of 2-2. This code is a fault in the drivers seat side airbag.

Agree with Frank in checking the under seat connections first.

The flash code is what you need first though.

Jim