Pretensioner / SRS / Airbag light question
 

Hi all

I picked up a very rough '96 recently and am slowly working through a long list of things to get it registered and back on the road. Currently trying to fix a constant airbag light.

There is no sign of any wiring or connectors going to the pretensioners. The passenger side has the occupancy sensor, but there is no sign of any wiring to or from the pretensioners on either front seat - either from the pretensioners themselves or from the harness. I removed the driver's seat and didn't have to disconnect anything. With the seat out, there was no sign of any harness wiring coming through the floor carpet. (There is harness wiring through the carpet on the passenger side for the occupancy sensor, but nothing else).

Any ideas??

Thanks

I had similar thing. turned out to be that one of the wires on the slipring had broken.

Not sure if slipring is the right term. But the deal that is on the back of the steering wheel that connects the shaft to the wheel. the airbag wires pass through there. If those are broken they can activate the SRS light.

Does anyone know if the pre-97 mechanical pretensioners / receptacles connect to the ECU in any way?

When the SRS light came on for me it was the passenger occupancy sensor mat. The light came on as soon as my mate JUMPED into the car with his boney backside :-( One way to diagnose this is to test resistance at the connector for the mat under the passenger seat.

The fix is to take the seat apart and change the mat while having fun with all the hog rings, though there are plug in modules available that simulate the resistance so the light can be reset. Or you could take out the instrument cluster and remove the bulb before realising that there is a backup light and then just put black electrical tape in there, not that I would ever do a thing like that just to get through the MOT test :-0

I have no idea about the tensioners. Best of luck with this and all the other work you're doing on it.

Thanks folks.

I am across and have sorted the cluster warning bulbs, airbag modules, clockspring and occupancy sensor. I’m now on to the seat belts and trying to ascertain which spec I have in my car (10/96 build) and whether these can trigger an SRS fault / warning light.

As above there is no wiring to the seat belt receptacles in my car. Does this mean:

(a) they are mechanical pretensioners that operate solely from the cable being pulled by seat movement on impact and the seat belt receptacles don’t have latching switches (ie neither the pretensioners or receptacles are connected to or send signals to the ECU, therefore they can’t be causing an SRS fault); or

(b) my pretensioners / receptacles / car wiring have been butchered.

I have an SRS code reader on the way but am trying to make some progress ahead of long COVID delivery times…


Cheers
Ben