Airbag Light On - Error Code help!

Hi All,

Hope you're all well!

Just after a bit of advice. I'm trying to get my Airbag light off (the right way - fix the problem, not remove the bulb). I've finally managed to get the fault codes read and I've tried to clear them. All codes (i.e. low voltage) have gone with the exception of one. I've used a couple of different software systems and the code is translated as follows -

05 - Passenger Airbag Exclusion Control Light - Open Circuit / Short Circuit at Ground PRESENT 207.

0005 - Failed Component Code: Passenger AirBag Inhibition Light
Error Code Status : Error Present

I'll try to attach photos below - hope they work...







...and just out of curiosity, anyone know what this green fuse is for? Cos mine looks a bit fried!



Any advice to get rid of this light would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

J

do you actually have a passenger airbag? i think i read on fb that you have the dials off a plus in your car... could it be that the airbag ecu is looking for an airbag that isnt there?

Hi, yes the car does have a passenger airbag just above the glovebox (also has the switch inside the glovebox to de-activate the airbag). The dials were replaced from standard to Plus dials but the airbag light had been on prior to the swap. The previous owner had removed the airbag bulb though.

Had a bit of help on the FB post and I’ll look into this amber airbag light that is apparently supposed to illuminate briefly when you switch the car on. It should also illuminate constantly when the passenger airbag is deactivated using the switch in the glovebox. Mine doesn’t illuminate at all.

I’ll see if I can locate the correct bulb and use my multimeter to establish whether any power is being sent here. If not, possibly a bad connection or broken wire somewhere.

Thanks for the response. Appreciate any pointers I can get!

Jay

Hi jay, I had a similar fault on my airbag when I bought the car.

Someone had taken the airbag bulb out. If you do this and you happen to have a model with a switch in the glovebox, it will cause the 'passenger airbag deactivated' light (orange light on the far left) to constantly flash. Someone had even put black tape over this as obviously couldn't sort it out.

My fault turned out to be a dodgy connector under the drivers seat!! Can't remember how the seat connector triggers the airbag though!! Just fiddling with connectors and a reset sorted it, think I was lucky!!!

The green fuse is for one of the radiator fans I think.
30 or 40 amp..
There's 2 different size fans on radiator if I remember correctly.

Hi all,

Quick update - I was advised to check the amber light (as mentioned above). Took the dials out and low and behold, missing bulb! Replaced it and the amber light now comes on, flashes, and goes out (also tested that it does stay on solid if I switch the passenger airbag off).

Hooked up the laptop and finally managed to clear all fault codes!



However, the little red light of annoyance has remained illuminated!



Can anyone think of any reason that the red airbag light would stay on even after all the fault codes have been cleared? I’ve started it about 10 times now just in case it needed to see no faults re-occurring, I’ve also scanned the ecu since and still showing no faults.

All thoughts and recommendations would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Jay

Have you tried the old reset trick of simply disconnecting the battery and waiting a while, joining the +ve and -ve leads together, reconnecting and trying again?

Just going to try that on mine! I'll let you know. I think mine came on due to low voltage. But it now will not go off!
These silly problems are not just related to FIAT. My Volvo V70 estate was just as bad until I found the right guy!

Stupid light still on! Also Injector light flashed a couple of times yesterday!

The only thing I can suggest is to check that there isn't a fault with the wiring behind the dash. From the wiring diagram I can see that one side of the warning light is connected to battery +ve when the key is turned. I presume that the other side is grounded by the airbag ECU when a fault is present. Maybe the insulation on this wire is damaged somewhere and grounding to metal, causing the light to be on. You could test the theory by unplugging the airbag ECU and see if the bulb is still on when you turn the key.
Good luck!

thanks

Just realised I didn’t update this thread! Always bugs me when folk don’t share the outcome of an issue, especially when it was a good one and the problem is now resolved! Sorry

So, the clue was actually tucked away in this thread the whole time...



Only it wasn’t the passenger airbag that was missing! It was side airbags. Apparently my dials were the rarer type that registered side airbags. So, the dials were swapped with the base of a different set of dials. They were tested using GPS to ensure the speedometer was still accurate (I kept all the speedometer parts from the plus dials) and all was good. Hooked up the laptop and reset the airbag ECU one last time and the light went off!

Hope that explanation makes sense!

Cheers,

Jay

It's good that you solved it (and remembered to come back and tell us ) but I would have thought that it's only the airbag ECU that can "register" side airbags, when you say "dials" I assume you mean the instrument panel - all that does it have a warning light? Did you swap the airbag ECU as well?

ECU wasn’t changed, apparently some plus dials (typical only the rare ones) will not switch the light off unless they get the right signal from the ECU.

You’ll see from my photos above that the ECU was reading “No Fault codes” but the red light remained on. But, when I swapped the dials for a standard set, the light went off. So I knew it must have been the dial unit itself. It was then a case of swapping all the PLUS dial faces over to a standard unit (check out the “How 2” section where I documented how to swap the Rev counter - I just did the same thing for all the faces). The risk was that the PLUS speedometer reads higher than the standard one... or vice versa, I forget! So I made sure I kept the plus speedometer mechanics and tested it with GPS to make sure the speedo was still fairly accurate.

Cheers,

J

OK thanks, I know the later Plus dials are also different for the later ABS with EBFD (electronic brake force distribution). Thanks for the clarification.

For future reference some very late Plus dials have an LED for an airbag dash light, there's a diode on the card which if it fails brings the light on but no code error so sounds very much like this is what's happened with yours Jay.

You could be right Joe, my dials did have the LED airbag light instead of a standard bulb. It was another specialist that told me it was looking for a side airbag. But perhaps that diode was dead!

Every days a school day.