[rnettleship]

Check the wires first

My SRS and passenger seat airbag lights came on a few days ago so I followed the excellent instructions in this thread to remove the sensor pad. Before assuming the pad was faulty I thought it was worth the time to inspect the wires.

Visually the wires looked fine, no chaffing or cuts in the insulation. I stripped off the outer insulation to reveal the 3 individual wires which also looked fine. As a final check I stripped back the insulation on each wire close the "box" and checked continuity from that point to the yellow plug. Sure enough, one wire was broken inside the insulation even with no sign of damage from the outside.

When my ohm meter showed no resistance on the white wire I lightly pulled on it from each end and it snapped in half. A quick splice and all is fine. The best part is it cost me nothing but a few hours of time.

If I had to do it again I would test the wires before separating the seat pad (white plastic clips) as the hardest part of the job was getting those clips to catch on the wires sewn inside the seat.

I hope this helps someone avoid the expense of replacing a perfectly good sensor.

 

[rnettleship]

Go for it....

Pulling the seat out is 4 bolts and a few plugs. If your slow, fifteen minutes. A qualified person could replace that sensor in less than an hour so why not go for it? Personally I would check the wires as that is the only thing that was wrong with mine and easily spliced. I could do the entire thing again in an hour without any skills as an upholsterer.

Don't let it scare you, the worse you can do is get it apart and need someone else to put it back together which still reduces the time you pay for. This is not rocket science. I would say a 3 on a scale of 1-10.

 

[rnettleship]

Kruso.... Make sure when you check continuity that you bend the wires across the entire length. A small break could make contact at sometimes and no others. To me it sounds like you just have a loose/broken wire or contact.