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Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Discuss problems you have had or are having with your Z4
E30fixated
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by E30fixated » Sun Jun 29, 2014 7:56 pm

E30fixated wrote:.....plenty of emulators to address the problem of a suspected seat mat sensor. I measure the resistance as ~1050 ohms, no load; under my 200 lb butt, the resistance goes up to 1100-1300 ohms inconsistently. An internet videoclip talks about 200 ohms in series with a 1N4001 diode for a home-made emulator; but otherwise I don't have a benchmark
The videoclip referenced http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6HsUapqNs4 indicates source as vehix411.com. The 1N4001 suggested to me that I should repeat the resistance measurement this morning. Remembering test current runs from the +ve side of my Simpson meter, I got the 1050 ohm reading again; but reversing the direction of test current, I see no continuity in the seat mat sensor. Quite likely, an emulator would include a diode. I will report success/failure of the home-made emulator in the next few days.

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half
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by half » Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:45 pm

Hi, my airbag light is on since I bought the car (used) and I'm still not able to turn it off.
I made the change under the seat with the resistance etc but you aren't off needless with Inpa, the only result is that sounded to the seatbelt. So I inferred that it was not the pad and have it removed. Once removed with the seat out of the car I put the tester on the two wires that come out of the seat. the wires one white and one blue.
Putting the tester 2000 ohm scale I marked by not sitting and sitting 80.4 1, putting meters on 20000 1 marks from me not sitting and sitting 060 ... that value to you?

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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by Whittaker » Sat Aug 16, 2014 11:14 am

My airbag light went on. It was on for a few days while BMW dealer was working out the problem. Then I was driving at less than 20 mph down a residential street luckily with the roof down when my steering wheel literally exploded with a couple of loud bangs and dense dark grey smoke coming from the airbag (without any impact). I nearly had a heart attack! This was an extremely dangerous experience especially if I had been driving on a motorway with the roof up. I was told by the BMW dealer that the airbag should not be able to deploy if the light is on.

So the dealer has spoken to BMW who incredibly will not give me an explanation or anything else saying that an incident like this has never been recorded before therefore they will do nothing. I am still pursuing this because there attitude is unacceptable and right now I don't want to drive my car because there are a number of other airbags that could similarly deploy and also while I am trying to get some come back the car doesn't have a horn which is illegal. The quote for a new steering wheel etc is over a grand - not acceptable.

KINNY529Glad
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by KINNY529Glad » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:39 pm

Hello
I have a 2004 Z4 SE 2.2i and in June got a service-new oil filter,oil & air filter- by an independent garage near where I work. Got the car back and straight away the airbag warning
light was on, and stayed on! I was going on holiday for a week the next day so left it till I got back to take it back to the garage. He put it on a diagnostic machine he had and it came
up with no faults! He recommended taking it to a different indy- incidentally where I bought the car 3 1/2 years previously- which I did. They had 3 attempts, on 3 different diagnostic
machines, all coming up with no faults! I want to sell the car in the near future but would like to clear this up first..............any ideas?

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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by Captainken » Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:34 pm

I had the same problem after removing and reconnecting my battery when removing my seats. I got a guy to fix the problem only to have it come back on after a couple of weeks
He reset it again and it came back on the next day
He wouldn't look again and told me that BMW electronics were a nightmare, he wasn't wrong there
I had a total of five people look and four of them said there was no fault showings part from one guy who said it was the rear seat belt even though I haven't got any in a two seater z4
Eventually I went to an Auto Electrician in SE London
He plugged his machine in and cleared all the historic faults and started again
It then showed a fault on a sensor on the main lead from the positive battery terminal up to the engine, apparently this is something to do with tightening the seat belts if your get a rear end shunt
The fault was showing to be on the drivers side seatbelt which he disputed because if it was the sensor it should show on both seats
One of the previous guys looked and it showed that I had a problem on the near side rear seat belt despite the fact that I havnt got any rear seats or rear seat belts
However, after thinking about the problem the guy in Eltham came up with his own idea to try which was simply to remove both battery terminals and give them a good clean and replace them doing them up tightly
Low and behold this solved the problem and all has been good now for the past 10 weeks
An easy fix and definitely worth a try
Good luck with it
Last edited by Captainken on Sun Nov 02, 2014 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2003 Z4 3.0i Auto Maldives Blue with Ivory Leather, Stubby, Angel eyes, chrome grills, zunsport lower mesh grill, M style pedals, drilled disc

steveyorks
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by steveyorks » Tue Sep 30, 2014 3:53 pm

Airbag light on. Diagnostic says faulty airbag module, many hundreds from BMW and then wants coding. they also said I could not re programme a secondhand unit but have found out I can.

ZLuke
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by ZLuke » Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:18 pm

Can anyone recommend an INDY in the Manchester area to look into this for me?

Cheers in advance :thumbsup:
Z4 E85 SILVER 2.2 SE

Fighting to keep my Z alive - Stay tuned

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mac27040
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by mac27040 » Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:21 pm

I have an sbsl airbag module brand new for sale £75 + p&p and can code it if your local to me.
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ben g
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by ben g » Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:23 pm

Weirdly, my airbag light decided to come on one afternoon when leaving work last week.

Hasn't gone back off of it's own accord, so I guess it's the same issue everyone has here?

Why are these cars so temperamental? Engines fantastic, it's everything else that's the problem.
Red Soft-top Sterling grey 3.0i - Z4M Front, Eibachs, Polybushed, Clear headlights, Triple clear spot rear lights, Shadow Chrome 107's, Sport MFSW, ZHP.

ZLuke
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by ZLuke » Tue Oct 28, 2014 5:12 pm

NewbieZ4Luke wrote:Can anyone recommend an INDY in the Manchester area to look into this for me?

Cheers in advance :thumbsup:
Z4 E85 SILVER 2.2 SE

Fighting to keep my Z alive - Stay tuned

Zero4
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by Zero4 » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:04 pm

Picked up car 2 nights ago... Airbag light came on the first night :( taking back to point of sale to sort. I'm reading that the
Bags won't deploy AT ALL with this light on? A little worrying

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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by lsteph0 » Sun Nov 02, 2014 1:00 pm

Was driving home last night when the red airbag light lit up on the instrument cluster. At the same time the headlight lamp went out and the indicator light doesn't work (although the headlights and indicators still function). Anyone got any ideas how I can rectify this and is the car still safe to drive?

Reading some posts it seems like cleaning the battery terminals might work but no-one else has said that their other instrument cluster lights were also effected.

The Badger
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by The Badger » Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:00 am

Ok so the airbag light came on this afternoon for the first time,

I drove home and parked the car (here is the weird bit !) I switched the engine off but left the key in the ignition and sat in the car whilst I sent a text message after a few minutes I took the key out of the ignition to exit the car and both indicators flashed ??????- Airbag light is still on ? does anyone know if this is covered on the AA repair warranty ? the car is supposed to be broken down before they will repair it ? but surely something as important as an air bag warning light constitutes a break down even though the car is running ??? any thoughts


Cheers

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Freddy07
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by Freddy07 » Thu Jan 08, 2015 11:31 pm

:( I am having an issue with my airbag light. Start car, light is on, turns off after a few seconds . While driving it will come on again after about 5 minutes and stay on.Turn car off, (fully warmed up) restart, acts normal, stays off. Half the time it will come on again after driving a short distance. Only repair by BMW under warranty, were the seat belts (replaced twice around 2009). 2007 BMW Z4 3.0 si, manufactured on 01/07. 66000 miles. Love the car....Hate the labor rate, cost of parts.
Freddy07

ZLuke
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Re: Airbag light on - Have you been affected? (UK)

Post by ZLuke » Thu Feb 26, 2015 5:37 pm

NewbieZ4Luke wrote:Can anyone recommend an INDY in the Manchester area to look into this for me?

Cheers in advance :thumbsup:
Bump!
Z4 E85 SILVER 2.2 SE

Fighting to keep my Z alive - Stay tuned

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