Airbag warning light permanently illuminated.

[Tickhillboy]

Hi there,
I have a 2000 Z3 1.8 I have owned and enjoyed the past 15 years. Unfortunately the car has now developed a fault where the airbag warning light remains on permanently and has been identified as a faulty airbag control module. A new replacement module from BMW comes in at more than £1700, this with an exchange allowance of £245 for the old unit! This got me thinking about the possibility of having the old/original module repaired or remanufactured so just wondering if anyone has actually had this done? At the moment the car is effectively off the road as I won't drive it without airbags. Any advise me please?
Regards,
Michael

 

[t-tony]

Hi Michael, have you had this fault diagnosed by a dealer or other garage (Indy perhaps). There are many reasons an airbag light will stay on and usually it is something more simple than the Control module. Have you had a code reader give you this diagnosis?

Tony.

ps. Are you from Tickhill near Doncaster?

 

[NZ00Z3]

If the trouble code is F0 (hex) or 240 (Dec) then have a read of this thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/...40-errors)-Finally-found-a-fix!&highlight=240

Your options are:

• Send the Airbag module on holiday to the USA for Abe to fix. As per the above thread.
• Replace it with a good used module and get it coded to your car. The INPA software pack has the tools to do the coding. See this thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/...tions-Experiences-Discussions-Experimentation
• Buy a new one at the prices you have been quoted.
• Say goodbye to your car of 15 years and sell it for parts.

If you get a good used one and coding it to your car is a bit much for you, do some research on this forum. There are a couple of Z-Sheds around the UK where owners get together and fix their Z's. You might have one nearby with a person skilled to do the coding for you.

 

[Tickhillboy]

Hi there,
I have a 2000 Z3 1.8 I have owned and enjoyed the past 15 years. Unfortunately the car has now developed a fault where the airbag warning light remains on permanently and has been identified as a faulty airbag control module. A new replacement module from BMW comes in at more than £1700, this with an exchange allowance of £245 for the old unit! This got me thinking about the possibility of having the old/original module repaired or remanufactured so just wondering if anyone has actually had this done? At the moment the car is effectively off the road as I won't drive it without airbags. Any advise me please?
Regards,
MichaelAuto
[/QU

Hi Michael, have you had this fault diagnosed by a dealer or other garage (Indy perhaps). There are many reasons an airbag light will stay on and usually it is something more simple than the Control module. Have you had a code reader give you this diagnosis?

Tony
ps. Are you from Tickhill near Doncaster?
[/QUOTE
Hi Tony, thanks very much for the reply.
Yes that's right I am a long time resident of Tickhill, not too far away from you at all! As for the car I took it to Autotechnics Doncaster, a well established and reputable BMW independent garage. Despite their best efforts they were unable to obtain any code readings at all and therefore embarked upon a manual fault finding mission involving removal of seats etc, but all to no avail. It was they who concluded the airbag control module was at fault. Unfortunately for me my particular model (1.8) was only produced for a short period of time and then changed the control module making a used one particular hard to come by. BMW offering to effectively take the old unit off me against a new one lead me to suspect it way well be reparable? Hope this all makes sense.

Regards,
Michael

 

[Tickhillboy]

If the trouble code is F0 (hex) or 240 (Dec) then have a read of this thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/...40-errors)-Finally-found-a-fix!&highlight=240

Your options are:

• Send the Airbag module on holiday to the USA for Abe to fix. As per the above thread.
• Replace it with a good used module and get it coded to your car. The INPA software pack has the tools to do the coding. See this thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/...tions-Experiences-Discussions-Experimentation
• Buy a new one at the prices you have been quoted.
• Say goodbye to your car of 15 years and sell it for parts.

If you get a good used one and coding it to your car is a bit much for you, do some research on this forum. There are a couple of Z-Sheds around the UK where owners get together and fix their Z's. You might have one nearby with a person skilled to do the coding for you.

Thanks very much for the reply NZOOZ3 I'll delve into it further as per your advice. The last option though is I'm afraid non negotiable as I'm not about to scrap my cherished Zed

 

[mrscalex]

Many garages won’t diagnose an airbag fault correctly. They’ll go route one to assuming it’s the module. Most won’t even try to help. The reality is there are several common points of failure. Of course they could be right. It’s a not uncommon failure. Just not the most likely.

The reality is it’s relatively simple to sort with a little guidance. @NZ00Z3 has set things out well for you. Although there are people in the U.K. who will repair the module for you too. The best advice of all is read up on old threads. It’s well documented on here.

You must start with a proper code read though. So get yourself a reader and go from there. A Creater C110 is a good cheap tool for this at under £50. You will also need a round connector adapter to plug in under the bonnet.

 

[Tickhillboy]

Many garages won’t diagnose an airbag fault correctly. They’ll go route one to assuming it’s the module. Most won’t even try to help. The reality is there are several common points of failure. Of course they could be right. It’s a not uncommon failure. Just not the most likely.

The reality is it’s relatively simple to sort with a little guidance. @NZ00Z3 has set things out well for you. Although there are people in the U.K. who will repair the module for you too. The best advice of all is read up on old threads. It’s well documented on here.

You must start with a proper code read though. So get yourself a reader and go from there. A Creater C110 is a good cheap tool for this at under £50. You will also need a round connector adapter to plug in under the bonnet.

Many garages won’t diagnose an airbag fault correctly. They’ll go route one to assuming it’s the module. Most won’t even try to help. The reality is there are several common points of failure. Of course they could be right. It’s a not uncommon failure. Just not the most likely

The reality is it’s relatively simple to sort with a little guidance. @NZ00Z3 has set things out well for you. Although there are people in the U.K. who will repair the module for you too. The best advice of all is read up on old threads. It’s well documented on here.

You must start with a proper code read though. So get yourself a reader and go from there. A Creater C110 is a good cheap tool for this at under £50. You will also need a round connector adapter to plug in under the bonnet.

Thanks very much for the that!
Tickhillboy

 

[GreybeardTheUnready]

Hi, I know I'm a bit late to this party - but thought I'd add my experience for anyone newly coming to this thread.
I have a 2.8 Roadster on a V plate and about 5 years ago I started getting this disturbingly common 'Air Bag Warning Light' problem. When it first occurred the mechanic that looks after my Z3 was able to simply 'Clear the Fault' and that fixed it for almost a year. Unfortunately subsequent attempts to clear the fault lasted less and and less time, until it simply re-established the fault immediately. After many investigations, some parts replacements and much hair pulling the mechanic suspected the fault was in the wiring loom and replaced the relevant connector under the seat which in my case fixed the problem.

 

[Delk]

Just had mine go off. Was digging things out from next to the seat and knocked the connection to the seat belt tensioner loose.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm having problems with mine ('01 3.0i). My mechanic cleared it, but I noticed it came back on when a rather larger person sat in the passenger seat. I suspect an issue with the wiring under the seat, but haven't gotten it sorted out yet. I don't really know where to start.

 

[colb]

Just spotted this thread so will add my experience of sorting a main airbag module on one of our members cars. Airbag light on and wouldn't clear with code readers or BMW INPA. The fault was comming up as an internal error in the main module sitting in front of the gear stick under the tunnel. The owner obtained a used module via ebay with the same part number as the failed one and binned the failed unit before I got involved. After a bit of research I discovered that the used module he had obtained despite it having the same part number was not what should have been fitted to the car. Consulting Realoem parts site on his Vin number listed airbag modules that should have been fitted to the car and also gave a list of compatable modules it could be fitted with. Worth noting not all modules are shown as being able to be fitted retrospectively.
Once we got a compatable module from our resident Breaker @spurs fan in a coupe that was fitted and I coded it to the car using NCS Expert software that comes with the BMW INPA diagnostics from BMCables on ebay. Codes were trhen cleared using INPA and the ignition was cycled, airbag light went out and has remained out since apart from when ignition is turned on and the system carries out its test sequence.
As the others have saaid earlier bad connections under the seats are the most common fails with our system so thats the normal place to look first. Its essential to read the codes if it allows you to so a good scanner is a must together with the 20pin to 16pin diagnostic cable to plug into the engine bay socket. If your car has a 16pin OBD2 socket under the steering that will only read the engine module not the airbag system.